From its offices in Madrid and Barcelona, Wayra Spain invested €2.7 million in 19 startups, 50% more than in 2021. Last year, Wayra celebrated its tenth anniversary, a decade in which it has helped create and transform local entrepreneurial ecosystems in Europe and Latin America by investing in a total of 800 startups. In 2021, Wayra invested a total of €6.7 million in 49 startups across Europe and Latin America. In Spain, Telefónica's open innovation hub closed its tenth anniversary year with a total investment of 2.7 million euros in 19 startups, a 50% increase compared to the 1.8 million euros invested in 2020 from the Madrid and Barcelona hubs.
In 2021, Wayra Spain invested in nearly twenty startups that are leading the digital transformation of our society in multiple sectors. Among the investments made, companies such as Volava, an investment made together with JME Ventures and Inveread, which offers live and on-demand online fitness classes; Idoven, a health startup invested in by Iker Casillas that helps prevent heart disease; Solum, a startup invested in together with the Bolsa Social Fund specializing in developing solar stations for light electric vehicles; or, Councilbox, a Galician firm specializing in legal technology applications in which Wayra invested along with Adara Ventures and Abanca.
“At Wayra, we have redoubled our efforts to invest in projects related to major global trends such as artificial intelligence (AI), Fintech, health and wellness, and sustainability. All these technological solutions now have the opportunity to reach millions of customers and scale with Telefónica,” says Andrés Saborido, Global Director of Wayra.
Wayra's participation in companies helps startups develop business with Telefónica and connects them with key business areas of the group such as cybersecurity, IoT, and data analytics, among others. In addition, startups gain access to Wayra's global network in Europe and Latin America and to the hub's community of investors and experts. The startups invested in by Wayra Spain throughout 2021 were the following:
• Camillion: This Valencian startup, headquartered in the United States, seeks to empower remote work and B2B communication through a tool that allows users to send video and audio messages in an organized, efficient, and casual way.
• ClimaTrade: This startup, born in Valencia, has a climate marketplace Based on blockchain technology, it helps companies achieve carbon neutrality. It connects companies that need to offset their carbon emissions with a large number of proven environmental projects to facilitate net-zero corporate strategies and make them more transparent.
• Councilbox: This Galician startup has developed the first IT solution that comprehensively manages the processes of online meetings (shareholder meetings, assemblies, corporate committees, etc.) guaranteeing their legal validity. Furthermore, it offers a solution for public administrations to provide citizen services virtually and traceably.
• EzzlingSolar: They have developed a tool from Madrid that simplifies the management of photovoltaic energy and allows companies to better develop distributed generation.
• Fuell: It has been one of the companies selected for Batch W22 of Y Combinator. Based in Madrid, Fuell offers a digital solution to simplify the bureaucratic aspects of employee expenses, such as submitting receipts, invoices, and expense reports.
• Genomcore: Wayra is investing again in this Barcelona-based startup specializing in computational analysis of the human genome.
• Idoven: a Madrid-based cardiology startup that allows any patient to discover how their heart works, helping doctors worldwide prevent heart disease, heart attacks, and sudden cardiac death. IDOVEN is one of 99 European companies selected for the EIC Accelerator (European Innovation Council) from over 4,000 applicants. This will allow it to receive an investment of 6.5 million euros.
• Kubbo: Barcelona-based logistics startup for eCommerce, providing fulfillment and delivery services for ecommerce and digital-native brands.
• LiveLink: Seville-based startup dedicated to developing IoT devices for smart mobility and other sectors with a significant impact on society, with multiple projects ranging from fleet management and security devices to provide connectivity for motorcycles, to the development of an eCall device for motorcycles.
• OpenWebinars: This Seville-based startup develops a technological eLearning platform where they teach the most in-demand technologies to programmers and systems administrators.
• OptimusPrice: Wayra invests again in this AI startup founded by scientists from the Barcelona Supercomputing Center and retail experts.
• Ritmo: a capital-as-a-service platform based in Madrid and Barcelona that offers the first recurring, non-dilutive financing line to the new generation of e-commerce companies, especially marketplace sellers.
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•UnmannedLife: With the support of its Artificial Intelligence software, this British startup with offices in Barcelona allows you to deploy, control, and orchestrate multiple types of robots that connect through different networks, such as Wi-Fi, 4G, and 5G.
Volava: A Barcelona-based startup that has promoted the concept of connected home fitness in Europe with its connected bicycles. Two of its products, the Smart Bike and the Smart Pulse, are now available in the movistar.es online store and in a selection of Movistar physical stores.
• Watchity: This Barcelona-based startup offers the opportunity to create and broadcast professional live videos without the need to be an expert, and they can be customized with the client's corporate visual identity.
Wayra, the entrepreneurship support initiative launched by Telefónica in 2011, celebrated its tenth anniversary last year, a period where it has helped create and transform local entrepreneurial ecosystems in Europe and Latin America. A decade of uninterrupted investment in 800 startups, which has contributed to the creation of more than 10,000 highly skilled jobs.
In 2021, Wayra also reinforced its commitment to the entrepreneurial ecosystem with the launch of the Scale Up Spain Network, an initiative of the Bankinter Innovation Foundation, Endeavor, and Wayra, which seeks to develop a more mature scaleup ecosystem in Spain.
Telefónica's open innovation hub looks to the future with a focus on capturing and enhancing business opportunities between startups and Telefónica, which arise with the arrival of 5G, the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), advanced data analytics, robotics, and cloud computing, among other technologies.