Wayra is a technological innovation hub, which was started in Latin America and Spain in 2011 as an initiative of

Telefónica Telefónica, S.A. () is a Spanish Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications company headquartered in Madrid, Spain. It is List of telephone operating companies, one of the largest telephone operators and List of mobile network ...

's chief executive in Europe,

José María Álvarez-Pallete José María Álvarez-Pallete López (born 12 December 1963, Madrid) is a Spanish economist and chief executive officer of Telefónica S.A. since 8 April 2016. Professional career José María Álvarez-Pallete began his professional career at A ...

. Wayra operates through 11 hubs in 10 countries within Telefónica’s footprint:

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, t ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the eas ...

, Colombia,

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

Mexico Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guate ...

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal , national_motto = "Fi ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' ( Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

, the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

and

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in ...

History

Wayra started in Colombia in mid 2011 and expanded to ten more countries that year. In 2013, there were 14 Wayra academies in 12 countries in Europe and Latin America. In March 2015, Telefónica closed down the Wayra in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

, as a part of Telefónica's general exit from that market. In 2015, Volo, which had been started at the

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

Wayra, was sold to the

Rocket Internet Rocket Internet SE is a German Internet company headquartered in Berlin. The company builds startups and owns shareholdings in various models of internet retail businesses. The company model is known as a startup studio or a venture builder. It ...

. Its UK branch is based in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

and was managed by Gary Stewart till 2019. A new country manager, Bruno Vidal Sa De Moraes, took over in February 2020. Wayra UK has partnered up with a healthcare company

Novartis Novartis AG is a Swiss-American multinational pharmaceutical corporation based in Basel, Switzerland and Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States (global research).name="novartis.com">https://www.novartis.com/research-development/research-loc ...

to support Health Tech start-ups, the

National Cyber Security Centre National Cyber Security Centre, National Cyber Security Center, or National Cybersecurity Center may refer to: Americas * Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, United States * Canadian Centre for Cyber Security, Canada Asia * Cyb ...

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

to create an accelerator for AI and

blockchain A blockchain is a type of distributed ledger technology (DLT) that consists of growing lists of records, called ''blocks'', that are securely linked together using cryptography. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, ...

start-ups. Based at th
Bayes Centre
this programme is a collaboration between Wayra UK and The University of Edinburgh’
Data-Driven Innovation Initiative.
Since its launch the programme has welcomed two cohorts featuring 20 data-driven start-ups. Between them they have raised over £3m in investment with a combined valuation of over £12m. The UK branch has also created an Intelligent Mobility accelerator which has chosen to support Spark, an AI start-up.

External links

Official website

References

{{reflist Business incubators Telefónica