In this era of the startup revolution, startup accelerators, originally called “incubators” (which worked a little differently), have appeared to help entrepreneurs see their ideas come to life. This time in ModoEmprendedor we will talk about WAYRA.
Wayra was born in 2011 in Latin America and Spain, financed by the Telefónica company. Since that time the expansion has been remarkable, by 2013 they already had 14 points of support in 12 countries between Latin America and Europe. It currently has support in Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Germany, Ireland, Spain, the United Kingdom and Eastern Europe.
Wayra offers financing, work spaces, expert advice, contact with other entrepreneurs and the possibility of doing business with the large number of users that Telefónica has.
In these 3 years it has received 26,983 projects and accelerated 438 (approx 1.6%). 80 of those startups are working with Telefónica. Wayra’s manager in London explains that the strategy is not simply to find new ideas, they also use Wayra to find talented people for Telefónica. A clear example is the Peruvian entrepreneur Gary Urteaga, who introduced his startup Cine Papaya to Wayra in 2011 and today is recognized throughout Latin America for his great success.
Also read: Gary Urteaga and his company valued at 7 million dollars.
If you did not know it and you are thinking of applying your idea, you should keep in mind that they are looking more than anything for products and solutions that have a great possibility of development with Telefónica and that can attract investment from third parties. Of course, they do not rule out proposals in other areas of technological innovation.
Apart from considering that most accelerators look for products with growth potential, global applicability and great appeal to facilitate fundraising, the work team that accompanies you to face this journey should be the one.
If your idea meets the profile, register here. Wayra is part of TELEFONICA OPEN FUTURE, a platform that brings together the initiatives of the telephone group related to entrepreneurship and innovation. On the platform you can keep up to date with other projects, comment on them, receive feedback on yours and access calls.
To date, Wayra has a portfolio of more than 400 companies in operation and all together are valued at more than 500 million euros, thanks to the more than 18 million euros provided by Telefónica and the more than 60 million euros granted by third parties (public and private funds and investors).
Below we show you some Startups that saw the light thanks to Wayra:
-Viajala: Allows you to compare prices of flights and hotels in different Latin American countries and make reservations right there. http://viajala.com.co/
-Upplication: Application to create applications. http://upplication.com/
-Geartranslations: Platform that makes it easy to find professional translators. http://geartranslations.com/
-Bucmi: Web platform to find sites related to the area of beauty and schedule appointments easily and quickly. https://www.bucmi.com/
Not all of us have the necessary funds to make our projects come true, but as always: there is a solution!
Just like Wayra, we will be presenting accelerators based in Latin America so that they can make their projects a reality.
If you have questions about the operation, protection of your rights and more, we leave the link of the FAQ http://wayra.co/faqs.
Remember “Some people dream of doing great things, while others wake up and do them.” Anonymous
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