Telefonica : Wayra seeks new start-ups for its academies in Europe and Latin America

MADRID, 12 May 2014. Wayra, Telefónica's international start-up accelerator, announced today that it is opening a new global call for projects in order to find new business proposals in the field of the internet and new technologies.

Entrepreneurs or technology companies with projects have until 8 June to apply, at http://www.wayra.org/joinus, for a place in one of the 8 academies offering places in this call for projects: Madrid, Barcelona, Dublin and Munich in Europe; and Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Lima and Santiago de Chile in Latin America.

The businesses that Wayra chooses to accelerate make the most of the benefits offered by the internet and new technologies to innovate. The priorities of this call for projects are projects and solutions related to:

• Products and services for retail, to improve the shopping experience, facilitate interaction at points of sale and monetize the buying process, like social shopping applications, big data solutions for characterization and customization of customers, among others.
• Productivity tools, to improve processes and team communication of both small and medium enterprises and corporations
• Applications and services that improve the experience of communication between people and enrich their digital environment integrating their devices.

After a thorough selection process, the best projects will be able to take part in the acceleration programme that will provide them with financing, dedicated mentors, specialised training and advice, a work space for the team in Wayra Academy and the opportunity to access Telefónica Group businesses.

Wayra currently has a portfolio of more than 317 companies divided into 20 digital industries. The fund pledged by Telefónica for early-stage companies accelerated by Wayra exceeds €13,5 million, while third parties (public and private funds and angel investors) have allocated funds amounting to more than €36 million to accelerated start-ups.

In addition, Telefónica has just released the "Open Future" program, which includes a free and virtual accelerator (www.openfuture.org), which will help young entrepreneurs to grow and advance their projects and network with other thousands of entrepreneurs around the world.

 [ends]

ABOUT WAYRA

Wayra is a Telefónica initiative whose main aim is to promote innovation and identify talent in Latin America and Europe in the fields of Internet and new Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). Its global project acceleration model helps entrepreneurs develop, providing them with technological tools, qualified mentors, a cutting edge working space and the financing required to accelerate their growth.

Already present in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Germany, Ireland, Mexico, Spain, the United Kingdom, Perú, Czech Republic and Venezuela, Wayra's calls for projects have received more than 23,000 applications from new digital businesses, making it one of the leading global platforms for identifying technological talent in the ICT world. Its academies in Bogotá, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Lima, Madrid, Barcelona, Caracas, Sao Paulo, Santiago de Chile, Munich, London, Dublin and Prague, currently host more than 317 startups.

Wayra is part of Telefónica Open Future, an open innovation platform that integrates all Telefónica Group's investment vehicles and initiatives to foster entrepreneurship and innovation globally and that also includes alliances with external partners to increase the impact and reach of these initiatives worldwide.