Skild
Skild provides a cloud-based innovation challenge management platform and white-glove professional services to enterprises, government agencies, and educational organizations, having produced over 600 challenges and facilitated roughly $300 million in prizes across 15+ years.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2004
- HeadquartersPasadena, United States
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Skild does
Skild is a B2B platform and services company, legally organized as Idea Crossing, Inc., that enables organizations to design, launch, and operate innovation challenges and learning programs. Founded in 2004 by Anil Rathi and headquartered in Pasadena, California, the company provides a cloud-based innovation challenge management platform combined with white-glove professional services covering challenge design, marketing outreach, project management, customer success, and pitch coaching. The platform handles the full lifecycle of a challenge including participant registration, multi-phase submission intake, customizable judging scorecards, a private judging interface, real-time reporting, integrated payment processing via Stripe, and video submission support through YouTube, TikTok, and Vimeo. The underlying architecture emphasizes configurability through custom branding (HTML/CSS editors), multi-phase workflows, API access, and zero-downtime cloud infrastructure, with integrations to Google Analytics 4 and Amazon QuickSight for analytics.
Skild firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Skild
- Legal name
- Idea Crossing, Inc.
- Website
- https://skild.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2004
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- Skild provides a cloud-based innovation challenge management platform and white-glove professional services to enterprises, government agencies, and educational organizations, having produced over 600 challenges and facilitated roughly $300 million in prizes across 15+ years.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Skild industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Innovation Challenge Management Platform
- NAICS
- Custom Computer Programming Services (541511), Computer Systems Design Services (541512), Other Computer Related Services (541519)
- SIC
- Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370), Services-Advertising (7310)
- akta.pro primary industry
- STEM Assessment, Badging & Competition Platforms (EDAFANAJ)
- akta.pro secondary industry
- Sales Enablement & Revenue Operations (RevOps) Tools & Services (BPAFAFAJ)
Keywords
Where Skild is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Pasadena
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Markets served
Skild business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations
Revenue model
- Platform Subscription: Software platform access for running innovation challenges including participant registration, submission management, judging, and reporting capabilities.
- Professional Services: Full-service marketing agency dedicated to innovation challenges, design consultation, project management, client services, and customer success support. White-glove services include event setup assistance, live training, design resources, and ongoing guidance.
- Government Services: GSA Schedule contract (47QRAA22D008M) providing access to federal government agencies for innovation challenge programs, design consultation, challenge audits, marketing, communications, project management, analytics reporting, and pitch coaching.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Multi-year contract | Enterprise/Government |
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels2 records
Marketing channels8 records
Skild product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Skild provides a turnkey innovation challenge management platform combined with white-glove professional services for corporations, government agencies, and educational institutions. The cloud-based platform handles the full lifecycle of innovation challenges — participant registration, submission management, multi-phase judging with customizable scorecards, real-time analytics, and prize disbursement via Stripe. Skild supplements the platform with consulting, marketing, design, project management, customer success, and pitch coaching services, plus access to a curated network of 10,000+ Innovation Evangelists for targeted outreach.
Product overview
Skild offers a unified innovation challenge management platform with integrated modules and professional services. The core Skild Platform handles the complete lifecycle of innovation challenges including participant registration, submission management, judging, scoring, and reporting. This platform is enhanced by modular features such as Private Video Uploads, Custom Branding, Multi-phase Entries & Scorecards, Teams Module, Payment Processing via Stripe, and Multi-Language Support. Skild supplements its platform with full-service offerings including Marketing Services, Challenge Design, Website Design, Project Management, Customer Success, and Pitch Coaching, along with access to the Skild Network of 10,000+ Innovation Evangelists. The company also provides API access for clients needing custom integrations beyond standard features.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Innovation Challenge: A proprietary challenge program format created by Skild, originally a university-based competition uniting students with global brands
Products and services
- Skild Platform Cloud-based, customizable innovation challenge management platform for organizations to run, monitor, track, and report every aspect of innovation challenge programs from a centralized dashboard. Handles participant registration, multi-phase submission management, judging with configurable scorecards, real-time analytics, payment processing, and API extensibility. Used by corporations, government agencies, and educational institutions.
- Marketing Services Full-service marketing agency dedicated specifically to innovation challenges, leveraging Skild's network of 10,000+ Innovation Evangelists, judges, and past participants to drive targeted outreach and high-quality submissions within a 60-day campaign window.
- Challenge Design Services Expert consultation on the purpose, structure, rules, and flow of innovation challenges to ensure effective program design and aligned objectives.
- Website Design Services Design services for the challenge's public-facing website, including appearance, messaging, and branding aligned to the client's identity.
- Project Management Services Dedicated project management to coordinate all aspects of challenge campaigns — from planning through launch, execution, and reporting — ensuring multiple components work together effectively.
- Customer Success Services Dedicated customer success team that builds out client platforms, trains users, and guides clients through challenges while addressing ongoing needs; includes event setup assistance and live training.
- Pitch Coaching Coaching programs for challenge participants to develop communication and storytelling skills, including dedicated pitch-coaching boot camps.
- Skild Network Curated network of over 10,000 Innovation Evangelists from global innovation ecosystems (universities, accelerators, incubators, nonprofits) who provide targeted outreach, mentoring, and personal recommendations to drive challenge participation.
- Government Services (GSA Schedule) Federal-government-focused bundle delivering innovation challenge design, audits, marketing, communications, project management, analytics reporting, and pitch coaching to U.S. agencies via GSA Schedule contract 47QRAA22D008M. Includes WCAG 2.1 / Section 508 / VPAT-compliant platform access for accessible public participation.
Quantifiable outcome
- 600+ challenges produced over 15 years
- +4 more outcomes
Companies that use Skild
Customer profileNamed customers12 records
Segments3 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Skild technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration7 records
Feature8 records
Skild partnerships and signals
Strategic signalScale indicators5 records
Recent moves5 records
Expansion highlights5 records
Skild competitors and assessment
Company assessmentBroad incumbents
- SurveyMonkey Apply: SurveyMonkey Apply is a broader-scale application and award management platform used for grants, scholarships, and innovation challenges. It competes with Skild on basic submission and judging functionality, particularly for education-sector clients, but lacks the curated evangelist outreach model.
Direct peers
- Brightidea: Brightidea is an enterprise innovation management software platform with challenge and crowdsourcing modules. It competes with Skild for corporate innovation budgets, particularly for internal employee engagement and external startup engagement programs.
- Wazoku: Wazoku (which acquired InnoCentive) operates an innovation challenge and idea management platform serving enterprises and governments globally. It directly overlaps with Skild in challenge design, participant management, and crowdsourced problem-solving for corporate and public-sector clients.
- IdeaScale: IdeaScale provides crowdsourced innovation software used by government agencies and large enterprises to run idea challenges and innovation programs. It directly competes for the same federal and corporate challenge-management RFPs that Skild targets via its GSA Schedule.
- Agorize: Agorize is an open innovation platform that helps enterprises run idea challenges, hackathons, and startup competitions. It targets similar Fortune 500 and government clients as Skild, with comparable challenge-design, judging, and prize-disbursement capabilities.
- HeroX: HeroX is a crowdsourced innovation challenge platform spun out of the XPRIZE Foundation. It is the most direct competitor to Skild, running corporate and government-sponsored prize competitions with a similar white-glove service model and prize-based participant recruitment.
Emerging players
- Submittable: Submittable is an application management platform used for grants, awards, and contests by foundations, governments, and brands. It overlaps with Skild on the submission management and judging workflow side but is positioned more as workflow software than a full-service challenge agency.
- Topcoder: Topcoder operates a global crowdsourcing platform for technology and design challenges, frequently working with government and enterprise clients. It overlaps with Skild's challenge management and participant recruitment capabilities, but is more focused on technical deliverables than broad innovation.
- Kaggle: Kaggle (owned by Google) hosts data science competitions and is a partial competitor in the challenge-based problem-solving space. While focused narrowly on data science, it competes for the same enterprise and government RFPs that Skild addresses (e.g., data.org-style programs).
- Quesnay: Quesnay is a female founders' innovation network and previously partnered with Skild to launch the Female Founders in InsurTech Innovation Challenge. As an emerging player in vertical-specific innovation programs, it is comparable as both a partner and a potential competing curator of innovation challenges.
Market position
Strengths4 records
Weaknesses4 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Skild social profiles
Digital presenceSkild compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance7 records
Skild financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Skild leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles5 records
Skild funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Skild M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Skild
What does Skild do?
Skild provides a turnkey innovation challenge management platform combined with white-glove professional services for corporations, government agencies, and educational institutions. The cloud-based platform handles the full lifecycle of innovation challenges — participant registration, submission management, multi-phase judging with customizable scorecards, real-time analytics, and prize disbursement via Stripe. Skild supplements the platform with consulting, marketing, design, project management, customer success, and pitch coaching services, plus access to a curated network of 10,000+ Innovation Evangelists for targeted outreach.
Is Skild a public or private company?
Skild is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was Skild founded?
Skild was founded in 2004. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Skild based?
Skild is headquartered in Pasadena, United States, in the North America region.
How does Skild make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. Platform Subscription is the primary driver. The others are professional Services and government Services.
Who are Skild's main competitors?
SurveyMonkey Apply is listed as a broad incumbent. Direct peers are Brightidea, Wazoku, IdeaScale, Agorize and HeroX. Emerging players are Submittable, Topcoder, Kaggle and Quesnay.
Does Skild have an API?
Yes. Skild's API allows clients to go beyond the currently offered features to create their own unique experiences. The API can be used to customize the platform to suit exact needs. The API is available for clients who want to build custom integrations and experiences beyond the standard platform features.
What industry is Skild in?
Skild's product category is Innovation Challenge Management Platform. Its primary akta.pro industry code is EDAFANAJ, STEM Assessment, Badging & Competition Platforms, with a secondary code of BPAFAFAJ, Sales Enablement & Revenue Operations (RevOps) Tools & Services. Its NAICS code is 541511 and its SIC code is 7372.