Wazoku is a software-as-a-service business providing innovation management software to customers including John Lewis, Ministry of Defence, HSBC and Bristol-Myers Squibb. Wazoku helps organisations transform raw ideas into actionable innovation, with the aim of realising untapped business opportunities, identifying areas for improvement, making operational savings and boosting revenue.
Wazoku’s mission is to help companies become every-day innovators and put continuous improvement at the core of their strategic capability. Wazoku has developed a market leading platform and suite of support services to enable firms to innovate at scale. Their core product, Idea Spotlight, is a Global Home for Ideas. It is a customisable off-the‐shelf solution offering collaborative idea management modules to meet the diverse set of innovation requirements that global businesses have.
Successful innovation requires not only capturing ideas, but also collating, analysing and implementing them. The platform provides the process and structure to capture, evolve, evaluate, develop, measure, select and implement the best ideas from internal or external stakeholders.
Rationale
The idea management market is expected to grow from $421.6m as of 2017 to $1,519.2m by 2022¹ and Wazoku is well positioned to become a global leader in this emergent market segment. Idea management has significant benefits to organisations. Wazoku client Waitrose used ‘Ideas Spotlight’ in 350 stores, engaging with 60,000 employees. The software has enabled £3.5m in total savings and delivered a 1500% return on investment (ROI).
The funding from Calculus will enable the company to further expand their reach by investing in sales and marketing and continue the development of the product.
Simon Hill, Chief Executive of Wazoku commented “More and more organisations are realising the need to innovate, solve problems and generate new ideas to meet objectives. People are a business’s greatest resource when doing so but they also the need the best tools to unlock those ideas. We are excited about being able to reach more potential clients who would benefit from innovation management using the funds from Calculus Capital.”
Idea management scaleup Wazoku has made two new senior hires, as the company readies itself for further growth in 2020. Kathryn Layland joins as Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) based in Wazoku’s London HQ, while Alex Butucea arrives as Wazoku’s new Director of Software Engineering, in the company’s Bristol office. Layland has held senior global revenue positions with several AdTech solution providers and has experience of growing and scaling SaaS … Continued
Quai Administration Services Limited is a digital administration company which provides an integrated, simplified administration platform for the high-volume personal savings industry.
The investments referred to in this website are not suitable for all investors. Calculus Capital Limited is not able to give advice to prospective investors about the suitability of the investments. Prospective investors are recommended to seek specialist tax and financial advice before investing in the Calculus EIS Fund or Calculus VCT.
An investment into the Calculus EIS Fund of Calculus VCT may only be made on the basis of reading in full the information set out in the relevant Information Memorandum or prospectus.
When investing, your capital is at risk. The value of shares and income from them may go down as well as up and despite the tax relief you may not recover the amount originally invested. An investment in smaller and unquoted companies carries a higher risk than many other forms of investment. Shares in unquoted companies are not readily marketable. You should not invest in an EIS or VCT unless you can afford to lose some or all of your capital.
An EIS or VCT investment is only appropriate for investors with a medium to long term investment horizon; the timing and extent of realisation cannot be predicted and may extend beyond five years. It is not possible to allow a partial withdrawal of your investment. You may request a total withdrawal, but since many investments made will be in unquoted companies, this may not be possible. Withdrawal within three years for the EIS and five years for the VCT would lead to repayment of any tax reliefs received.
The tax benefits available depend upon your individual circumstances and these benefits may change dependent upon future legislation.
Important Information
The investments referred to in this website are not suitable for all investors. Calculus Capital Limited is not able to give advice to prospective investors about the suitability of the investments. Prospective investors are recommended to seek specialist tax and financial advice before investing in the Calculus EIS Fund or Calculus VCT.
An investment into the Calculus EIS Fund of Calculus VCT may only be made on the basis of reading in full the information set out in the relevant Information Memorandum or prospectus.
When investing, your capital is at risk. The value of shares and income from them may go down as well as up and despite the tax relief you may not recover the amount originally invested. An investment in smaller and unquoted companies carries a higher risk than many other forms of investment. Shares in unquoted companies are not readily marketable. You should not invest in an EIS or VCT unless you can afford to lose some or all of your capital.
An EIS or VCT investment is only appropriate for investors with a medium to long term investment horizon; the timing and extent of realisation cannot be predicted and may extend beyond five years. It is not possible to allow a partial withdrawal of your investment. You may request a total withdrawal, but since many investments made will be in unquoted companies, this may not be possible. Withdrawal within three years for the EIS and five years for the VCT would lead to repayment of any tax reliefs received.
The tax benefits available depend upon your individual circumstances and these benefits may change dependent upon future legislation.
