1999

Historic Chess Match

The initial inspiration for Affinnova came to one of our founders as he watched the well-publicized Kasparov versus the World chess match in 1999. As he observed the positions evolve, between the then world champion and the thousands of participants across the web, he wondered if something similar couldn't be done for product design – where despite a massive range of options, the collective mind of consumers can find the best 'next move' for the designer. Within two years of its founding, Affinnova had developed and patented its novel Interactive Evolutionary Algorithms.

2000

Roots at MIT

Affinnova was founded in 2000 by two PhDs from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Noubar Afeyan and Kamal Malek. Though from disparate fields – chemistry/biology in one case, mechanical engineering in the other – they shared an interest in artificial life and product design. The founders combined a number of trends converging at the time including new thinking about emergence in innovation and product design, advances in genetic and evolutionary computation, and the fast growing capabilities of the Internet to access the 'collective mind'.

2004

Beginning with CPG

After a few years of piloting and refinements, Affinnova began commercializing their technology in earnest in 2004 with a focus on Consumer Packaged Goods. Innovative early adopters began applying optimization to their new product development, brand messaging and package design challenges. Today, Affinnova is being adopted as a crucial step in the innovation process throughout the CPG industry and has expanded into several additional verticals, including Life Sciences, Retail, Financial Services and Design. There is no obvious limit to how far Affinnova's technology can reach - if a new idea's success is dependent on consumer demand, and it can be rendered on a computer screen, Affinnova can help.