To mark Women Entrepreneurs Week, Wayra is launching its first Co-Investment Day to jointly invest in startups led by women. Telefónica's open innovation hub is supported for this event by Caixa Capital Risk, Inveready, JME, Kibo Ventures, Nekko Capital, Sabadell, Swanlaa, and The Venture City.
The event will be held next November 22 at the Wayra's hub on Gran Vía will host a selection of startups, nominated by various investment funds, who will present their projects in pitch format to a jury composed of executives from Telefónica and Wayra, as well as investors from the funds. Each company will be eligible for an investment of up to €2 million. This initiative aims to boost investment in women-led companies, a pending task for the Spanish entrepreneurial ecosystem and a unique opportunity for female entrepreneurs to grow with the support of Telefónica and leading funds in the startup world.
Several studies demonstrate that companies with female leadership perform better: a study by BCG and Mas Challenge this year revealed that startups founded by women generate more than double the revenue of those founded by men. However, female entrepreneurs receive significantly less capital, as recently demonstrated by the Entrepreneurship Map prepared by Spain Startup – South Summit: in Spain, over 70% of startups seeking €1 million or more are founded exclusively by men, compared to only 4% founded exclusively by women. “At Wayra, almost 20% of our portfolio includes female founders, representing 18% of total third-party investment. However, they have a 27% lower failure rate than the portfolio as a whole,” explains Paloma Castellano, director of Wayra Madrid. With this meeting, Wayra Spain will conclude Women Entrepreneurs Week, during which it already hosted the Professional Women's Network (PWN) event to launch M+50 Emprende, an initiative that aims to promote the employability of women over 50.