Telefónica announced this week that Wayra, our startups global accelerator, has launched a new global call in order to find 50 new digital startups for its centres in London (UK), Madrid and Barcelona (Spain), Prague (Czech Republic), Caracas (Venezuela), Bogota (Colombia) and Buenos Aires (Argentina). As previously described in this blog, the objective of Wayra is to support the growth of innovation and technological entrepreneurship. Thus, the common factor in the businesses that Wayra decides to accelerate is that they make the most of the advantages of Internet and new technologies to innovate.
This is the third time that Wayra launches a global call since its foundation in April 2011. From 28 January to 23 February 2014, entrepreneurs around the world can present their digital projects in order to win a place at one of these academies. In this call, the focal point is products and solutions in the fields of “Internet of Things”, in particular connected sensors and devices applied to Smart Cities, Big Data and mobile technologies targeting new application developed using HTML5 and potentially embeddable as new mobile capabilities for the Firefox OS Initiative, although not exclusively.
After passing a selection process, the best projects will become part of the Telefónica acceleration programme. In addition to financial support, this programme provides access to the forefront of Wayra academies and its global network of entrepreneurs. Selected projects will receive support for the development of their businesses, including technical and commercial advice, as well as potential access to the Telefónica Group’s businesses.
In only two years, Wayra consolidated itself as one of the most important accelerators of the world, with operations in 12 countries of Latin America and Europe. Throughout its different local and global calls, in less than 3 years, Wayra has received more than 20,000 technological business proposals. From this amount, Wayra has selected and financed more than 315 startups that are grouped in 20 digital industries. All together, these 315 startups add up to an investment of 43 million euros: 13 million contributed by Telefónica plus another 30 million in outside financing.
Are you ready to participate? Click here to submit your project!
