Creating Bridges Between Innovation And Business
Agorize Asia Team
Agorize helps businesses innovate and identify the best talent by connecting them with a global community of innovators through the Agorize platform.
“In 2016, we arrived in Asia with one ambition: connecting large organisations with talented innovators. Three years later and with a presence in Hong Kong, Tokyo and Singapore, we are proud to have created thousands of meaningful business connections across the whole of Asia.”
Mathieu Toulemonde, CEO, Agorize Asia
Agorize specialises in organising Open Innovation Challenges for large corporations to crowdsource the best solutions to address their strategic issues. It offers an online platform to tailor‑make innovation competitions and business challenges dedicated for a target audience.
After connecting talent from over 145 countries, Agorize opened its first office in Hong Kong in 2016 to bring its vision to Asia. “Our aim in Asia is clear: we want to be a driving force for innovation, we want to be the missing link between businesses and innovators,” Mathieu Toulemonde, CEO of Agorize Asia, said.
“The dynamics and freshness of Hong Kong is beyond appealing. The city is a great location for developing business in Asia, especially considering how close it is to Mainland China, one of the largest markets in the world. Last September, we celebrated our second anniversary here in Hong Kong and Agorize continues to enjoy success facilitating open innovation and developing our community of innovators in Asia,” he added.
Agorize acts as the missing link between corporations who are seeking out innovation and talent, and innovators (i.e. students, startups, developers and employees) who are looking to share their ideas and help companies succeed. In fact, Agorize’s clients say they innovate five to 10 times faster in this way than traditional methods, thanks to dozens of ground‑breaking projects arising from challenges that attract up to several thousand online participants. Given the importance of innovation in business, the demand for such platforms is high.
This solution has already been adopted by top global companies in all industries and sectors with over 200 clients on‑board around the world. While over 50 leading companies across Asia, including Amazon Web Services, Enterprise Singapore, LVMH Fashion Group, Microsoft, Pernod Ricard China, Schneider Electric, and Singapore Airlines, have trusted Agorize Asia to organise challenges in over 10 different countries in Asia using its Open Innovation platform to engage with a community of one million innovators across Asia.
The demand for Open Innovation solutions is reflected in the recent Series B funding of US$ 14.6 million, led by Creadev, alongside Sofiouest and existing equity holders, Iris Capital and Capnamic Ventures. This fundraising takes the total amount raised to US$ 19 million since the startup was founded in 2011 and will allow Agorize to step up international growth and meet the growing demand from large corporate companies for Open Innovation solutions across Asia. “In 2016, we arrived in Asia with one ambition: connecting large organisations with talented innovators. Three years later and with a presence in Hong Kong, Tokyo and Singapore, we are proud to have created thousands of meaningful business connections across the whole of Asia, “ Toulemonde concluded.
Fast Facts: Agorize
- Startup founded in 2011 and raised US$ 19 million so far
- More than 200 corporate clients from all over the world
- Five million innovators in 185 countries and 80 employees
- Offices in Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, France, Germany and Canada