Just days after its global relaunch, Wayra participated in the new edition of South Summit 2018 to meet with the world's best technology startups and continue its commitment to strengthening the entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Under the title "Where Innovation Meets Business," the most disruptive projects met at South Summit with corporations and investors seeking innovation to generate new business opportunities. The event brought together more than 200 internationally renowned speakers and 175 international investment and venture capital funds, representing a combined investment portfolio of more than $55 billion.
Wayra had its own stand in the Marketplace, where the 100 South Summit finalist startups gathered.
Furthermore, it had a prominent presence on the event's agenda with presentations on cybersecurity, blockchain, the Internet of Things, Big Data, Edge Computing, venture capital investment, and technological talent.
On October 3rd at 11:15 a.m., José María Álvarez-Pallete inaugurated EnlightED, the event promoted by Fundación Telefónica, IE University, and South Summit, which brought together experts in education, technology, and innovation to foster a major debate on education in the digital age. That same day, at 1:00 p.m., Miguel Arias, Global Entrepreneurship Director of Telefónica, explained the key aspects of the new Wayra in a presentation entitled ‘How to make elephants dance’. On October 4, Emilio Gayo, President of Telefónica Spain, and Isaías Táboas, President of Renfe, discussed the future of mobility in the railway industry on the Arena Stage and jointly announced Trenlab, Renfe's new startup accelerator developed with Wayra.
The New Wayra
Wayra's participation in South Summit is aligned with the company's new strategy, which seeks to invest in more mature technology startups that fit with Telefónica's own strategic projects. Wayra, founded in 2011, began a new phase on September 20th, more focused than ever on business. With a presence in 16 countries through its Academies and innovation hubs, Telefónica has invested over €160 million since 2011 through Wayra and its funds. More than 400 of the startups accelerated within the Open Innovation program are still active, and of these, more than twenty have reached a valuation exceeding $50 million. The new Wayra, whose logo was recently unveiled in Madrid, will focus its acceleration and investment on companies with a clear business plan and whose activity is primarily technological and related to Telefónica's strategic projects in fields such as Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, the Internet of Things, cybersecurity, and fintech. This new approach comes months after Miguel Arias, Global Entrepreneurship Director and formerly COO of the Spanish startup CARTO, in which Telefónica Open Future has a stake, joined Telefónica. “We aspire to support a cultural shift within the company that reaches the entire organization and leads us to more agile and digital processes, with the goal of having, by 2020, more than 200 startups working at scale with Telefónica—currently there are around 100—helping it to grow significantly in revenue and become more efficient and sustainable,” explains Arias.