In 2022, Wayra made a global investment of €5.7 million in 40 startups, 16 of which are Spanish. This demonstrates Wayra's continued commitment to startups and technological entrepreneurship.
“At Wayra, we are very proud of what we have achieved and the learning we have undertaken to improve year after year. In 2022, we continued to demonstrate our commitment to the entrepreneurial ecosystem, acting as a conduit to bring innovation and apply the most disruptive technology, through our startups, to Telefónica's customers in all the countries where we operate,” says Andrés Saborido, Global Director of Wayra.
One of the many sectors that Wayra has focused on in 2022 is health and sports with Indya, the Valencian company that has been in the sector for ten years. Nutrition, and two years ago it made the technological leap to become the leading nutrition and performance app in Spain. Athletes Iker Casillas and Rudy Fernández also became shareholders in the startup, along with Pau Gasol. Also linked to the world of sports, Wayra invested last year in Metasoccer, an innovative gaming proposal created by Champion Games, a leading Barcelona-based startup in the video game sector. Fintech was also one of the key sectors in 2022, with notable investments in Rand.app, the favorite finance platform for young people; Devengo, the platform for instant transfers; or Crossmint, the leading platform for simplifying the buying and selling of digital assets (NFTs), whose payments API helps its clients orchestrate bulk payments programmatically and instantly.
Among Wayra's commitment to startups that facilitate the entire e-commerce value chain, Qoala and Rever stand out. Qoala allows users, through a browser extension and app, to find and apply online discount coupons and get cashback at its more than 3,000 affiliated stores. Rever, for its part, has developed software that automates refunds for e-commerce returns and streamlines the return process for online purchases. Also noteworthy is the investment in Haddock, the only software in Europe that helps restaurant owners improve cost control. With just a photo of invoices, delivery notes, or receipts, this Catalan startup allows users to digitize documents and extract all their information using artificial intelligence to understand price variations and improve profit margins. In the education sector, Wayra has invested in the startup Smowltech, which offers proctoring solutions to help educational institutions and companies verify online exams, strengthening the quality of remote learning and making it more accessible. Within the Web3 field, Wayra has invested in startups such as Gamium, a universal digital identity proposal, and Internxt, the decentralized cloud storage provider that uses blockchain technology to encrypt and fragment files, increasing the privacy and security of its users. Furthermore, Wayra has renewed its commitment to other Sectors such as Healthcare, with reinvestment in Idoven, a cardiology platform powered by Artificial Intelligence; Agrotech, with reinvestment in Auravant, a tool for crop optimization; and Proptech, with reinvestment in Floorfy.
It has been a year of investments for Wayra Spain, but also of sales. Notable transactions in the cybersecurity portfolio include the purchase of HDIV by NASDAQ-listed Datadog and the acquisition of Pridatect by Singapore-based Borneo.io, founded by the former CISO of Yahoo and Uber.
More than 10 years of activity
The entrepreneurship support initiative launched by Telefónica in 2011 has been active for more than 10 years in 9 countries in Latin America and Europe. Wayra is a complete and unique interface between entrepreneurs and the network of partners. In total, it has invested 65 million euros in more than 850 startups. Currently, there are more than 400 active startups in the portfolio and 7 Innovation Hubs, spaces that allow startups to showcase their most innovative technologies to clients and partners, such as the Wayra Tech Lab opened in 2021 in Germany or the WayraBarcelona one, inaugurated in March 2022.
During 2022, Wayra has worked hand in hand with partners to find and support startups in specific verticals. They highlight the partnership with Desigual for the FashionTech industry, on the one hand, and Sportboost, the accelerator founded by Iker Casillas for SportTech, on the other.
Telefónica's open innovation hub looks ahead with a focus on business opportunities between startups and Telefónica, arising from Web 3.0, 5G, the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), data analytics, robotics, and cloud computing, among other technologies.