Herox, PBC

Herox, PBC, a for-profit crowdsourcing and open innovation platform company based in Dover and Stanton, Delaware, holds a $474.988 million NASA Open Innovation Services 3 (NOIS3) government-wide acquisition contract authorizing it to deliver crowdsourcing and open innovation services to multiple federal agencies as a prime contractor on an unrestricted, full-and-open basis.

Herox's federal footprint is heavily concentrated with NASA's Johnson Space Center, which accounts for 41 of 42 total prime awards (100% of combined potential value of $692.7 million). The vendor competes exclusively as a prime contractor; no subcontract work appears in the source. Herox specializes in designing and executing innovation challenges, prize competitions, research competitions, data challenges, and crowd-based problem-solving initiatives that engage external innovators and the public to generate creative solutions for federal mission requirements across science, technology, research, and infrastructure domains. The company operates two primary NASA vehicles: the $175 million NASA Open Innovation Services 2 (NOIS2) IDIQ (28 task orders, $16.2 million combined potential value) and the newer NOIS3 GWAC (10 task orders, $6.4 million combined potential value) awarded June 5, 2025, with ultimate completion May 31, 2027.

Recent representative task-order work under NOIS3 includes a $1.49 million Minority University Research and Education Project (MUREP) Partnership Learning Annual Notification 2026 challenge (February 26, 2026), a $1.27 million National Institutes of Health Connecting the Community for Maternal Health Challenge delivery order (June 29, 2026), and a $549,900 U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Detecting Subsurface Cracks in Embankments Competition (November 19, 2025). Under NOIS2, Herox delivered a $1.03 million Entrepreneurs Challenge (February 15, 2023), a $442,520 MUREP Opportunity for Research Exchange initiative (February 2, 2023), and a $875,071 External Crowdsourcing task order (June 9, 2022). Work is performed at Herox's Delaware facilities.

Activity has accelerated in 2025 (10 awards) compared to prior years; 2022 through 2024 averaged 5–7 awards annually. Only seven awards face ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, carrying combined potential value of $3.2 million and representing minimal near-term recompete exposure. The vendor is classified under primary NAICS 541712 (All Other Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services) across 41 of 42 awards. Of the $692.7 million combined potential value across all federal awards, only $25.2 million has been obligated to date (4%), reflecting the IDIQ and GWAC structure where task orders are issued incrementally against the ceiling.

We use prize incentive competitions to help companies and organizations crowdsource innovative ideas to solve complex problems, and support them in running their own open innovation programs to meet their internal innovation targets. Our services are executed entirely through our own internet platform which can be customized according to our clients' needs. Services can include competition design, sourcing crowds of competitors, project management, engagement, judging support and facilitating prize payouts. We use a combination of social media and direct outreach techniques to build a crowd that has the maximum potential to provide ideas and solutions to the competition