London-based Wazoku, one of the UK’s fastest-growing B2B technology firms, has opened an office in Bristol – its first outside the capital. It cited Bristol’s strength of development talent as a reason for the move and is already recruiting developers and engineers.
The award-winning firm, which describes itself among the country’s 50 most disruptive businesses, is a leading provider of collaborative innovation software and is expanding after a winning a host of high-profile customers. 
Chief strategy & product officer Rosemarie Diegnan said: “As a technology firm our success is dependent on the strength of our product, and the development community here is among the best in the country.
“That community, the Bristol area’s four universities and potential for growth made it the number one choice for our second UK office. Not only will our new development team be making the Wazoku platform even better, but we also want to become active in the Bristol business community and play a role in promoting that.”
Earlier this year the Bristol & Bath area was named as the UK’s most important centre for the fast-growing digital industry outside of London. Its pool of developer talent has helped attract firms like Somo, the world’s largest independent mobile solutions company, Chinese telecoms giant Huawei, and Just Eat, the leading online takeaway service.
Wazoku’s online platform Idea Spotlight is designed to power collaborative innovation and solve business challenges. It gives organisations the process and structure to capture, evaluate and select ideas from relevant internal or external stakeholders – whether staff, partners, manufacturers or even customers themselves.
The platform is highly flexible and can be used to solve any kind of business challenge, as well as increase engagement, dialogue and surface valuable new insights and talent.
Existing customers include Aviva, the BBC, and Anglian Water, as well seeing its CEO Simon Hill crowned The Guardian Small Business Leader of the Year in 2014.
It has also worked with the University of Bristol, which used its software with students to get real-life venture capital feedback for their ideas, helping those students to develop and evaluate business ideas.
The company launched in 2011 and subsequently raised £1.25m in funding, with another round of funding due to close shortly.
“Big ideas and innovation in business are increasingly on the agenda and an important part of that is having the right tools to capture and develop those ideas,” added Rosemarie Diegnan. “Organisations have realised the power and potential of the crowd for ideas and Wazoku’s technology is helping to realise that potential.”
The firm is the only idea management supplier listed on the UK Government’s G-Cloud Framework and was the only UK firm recognised by Gartner in its ‘Who’s Who In Innovation Management Technology’ report. CEO Simon Hill was crowned The Guardian Small Business Leader of the Year in 2014.
