Innocentive

About InnoCentive

Founded in 2001, InnoCentive built the first global web community for open innovation, enabling scientists, engineers, professionals and entrepreneurs to collaborate to deliver breakthrough solutions for innovative R&D-driven organizations. InnoCentive Seekers, who collectively spend billions of dollars on R&D, submit Challenges to the InnoCentive Marketplace where more than 200,000 engineers, scientists, inventors, business people, and research organizations in more than 200 countries are invited to solve them. Solvers who deliver the most innovative solutions receive financial awards ranging up to US$1,000,000. InnoCentive’s Seekers include commercial, government and non-profit organizations such as Procter & Gamble, Avery Dennison, Pendulum, SAP, Eli Lilly and Company, Janssen, Solvay, GlobalGiving and The Rockefeller Foundation.

Website: www.innocentive.com
Corporate blog: http://blog.innocentive.com
Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/InnoCentive
Twitter: http://twitter.com/InnoCentive

Corporate Headquarters:

InnoCentive, Inc.
201 Jones Rd, 4^th Floor East
Waltham, MA 02451
Toll free: +1-866-812-7339

Key people:

• Dwayne Spradlin, President & CEO
• Robert Kinney, CFO & VP, Operations
• David Ritter, Chief Technology Officer
• Jon Fredrickson, VP of Sales
• Bonnie Kiesling, VP of Marketing
• Lisa Reinhold, VP of Client Services
• Steve Shapiro, VP of Strategic Consulting

Challenge Industry Types:

• Business and Entrepreneurship
• Chemistry
• Computer Science and IT
• Engineering and Design
• Food & Agriculture
• Life Sciences
• Mathematics and Statistics
• Physical Sciences
• Requests for Partners/Suppliers

Stage of Funding: Series B: To date InnoCentive has received over $16 million in investment through Spencer Trask Ventures.

Solvers:

• The InnoCentive Solver community is one of the worlds most diverse, socially committed and financially rewarded network of creative minds.
• InnoCentive offers the world’s most intellectually stimulating and personally rewarding Challenges.
• InnoCentive gives Solvers the opportunity to apply passion, creativity and knowledge necessary to Challenges that change the world one innovation at a time.

Seekers:

• Seekers are corporations large and small, non-profit organizations and government entities.
• InnoCentive seekers are visionaries who understand that R&D must evolve to meet the challenge of the 21st century in order to properly accelerate product creativity, ingenuity and time to market.
• Open access to one of the world’s most diverse and socially committed network of creative minds.
• InnoCentive manages the lifecycle of innovation, providing a systematic, confidential and pay-for-performance approach for any organization to find, review and purchase innovation.

Awards: Range from $5,000 to $1 million based on the complexity of the problem. To date over $4 million in award money has been awarded to Solvers. To date 539 Submissions have been awarded, for prizes typically in the $10,000 to $25,000 range.

Interesting Facts and Statistics (updated 02/05/2010)

Total Solvers: 200,000+
Total Challenges Posted: 1000
Project Rooms Opened to Date: 261,074
Total Solution Submissions: 16,341
Total Awards Given: 539
Total Award Dollars Posted: $22.85 million
Total Dollars Awarded: $4.81million
Average Success Rate:  45%
Total employees: 32

Solutions of Note

InnoCentive has worked with several non-profit organizations to aid in finding solutions to some of the world’s most pressing Challenges. Below is an overview of some of the Challenges that have recently been solved through InnoCentive.

Oil Industry Outsider Solves Oil Spill Recovery Challenge

In the summer of 2007, the Oil Spill Recovery Institute (OSRI) posted 3 Challenges on the InnoCentive website, all dealing with oil spill recovery issues. The first of these Challenges was solved in November 2007 by an oil industry outsider who used his expertise in the concrete industry to come up with the winning solution. John Davis, an InnoCentive Solver from the Central United States, was awarded $20,000 for his creative solution. Find out more about this Challenge.

Solver brings Light to African Villages

In late 2007, SunNight Solar, an organization that is dedicated to shining a light on problems plaguing the developing world including poverty, women’s safety, health, and literacy, sought the help of InnoCentive’s Solver community to create a dual-purpose solar light to serve as both a lamp and a flashlight to be used in African villages and other areas of the world without electricity. This invention provides sufficient light for security at night, enabling children to study and allowing family members to safely walk to outhouses at night. An electrical engineer from New Zealand solved the Challenge and was awarded $20,000 in March 2008.  Find out more about this Challenge.

TB Alliance Works to Eradicate One of the World’s Deadliest Diseases

In late 2007, the TB Alliance, a not-for-profit, product development partnership (PDP) dedicated to accelerating the discovery and development of new and improved drugs to treat tuberculosis, posted a Challenge on the InnoCentive web site.  The Challenge was seeking a theoretical solution to simplify the manufacturing process of a current drug compound.  This new methodology would improve the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of producing the compound, making it more widely available and more effective against the spread of TB, which is responsible for one death every 20 seconds. The solution was provided by two Solvers, one of whom was a scientist with a very personal stake in finding a cure for TB.  As a child, his mother was a victim of the disease, and at the age of 14 he was forced to become the breadwinner for his family.  His contribution to developing a cost effective process will benefit millions suffering from TB especially from developing and underdeveloped countries.   Find out more about this Challenge.

For More Information contact:

Connie French - 978-482-3389
press@innocentive.com