10 years of Wayra — 4 changes you didn’t know about 🚀
👉TL;DR
Few in Open Innovation can say they were part of why it all started, and even fewer have been around for a decade.
This year Wayra celebrated its 10th anniversary. In that spirit, we at Wayra UK reflected on the last decade of innovation to enhance our startup/corporate offer for the next one.
This article outlines the four key changes we’ve made:
🔍We launched a dedicated Scouting Team
💸We increased our ticket size to €250k
⚡We run 3 strategically driven vertical programmes
🚀We reformed our flagship London programme
🔍We launched an Innovation Scouting team!
We now offer Innovation Scouting as a service.
Our goal is to help P&L owners solve their innovation challenges. How? By connecting them with the right VC backed company that solves their innovation challenge.
Our dedicated scouting team runs two models of innovation scouting:
- Inbound: Entrepreneurs and VCs recommend companies they think have the potential to work with Telefónica or its clients. We review that dealflow with the goal of idenitfying and creating a business case.
- Outbound: Unlike inbound, outbound scouting is driven by a specific innovation goal. We scour the market for companies that fit a technological or commercial brief given to us by Telefónica or its stakeholders.
👉 Have a company that could work with Telefónica? Share them here!
💸Our ticket size has increased to €250k
Our ticket: We have 6–8 tickets a year, targeting pre-series A to series B companies, and specific circumstances series C. We offer convertible loan notes or can join an existing round.
Our investment criteria: the primary criteria for investment is strategic “fit” with Telefónica’s business or products. What is strategic fit? It’s a company’s potential to generate at least a 6 figure business case with Telefónica’s or its clients.
Our offer beyond investment: Once we’re on the Cap Table, every company receives a dedicated Business Development representative from Wayra to support in navigating Telefónica’s global ecosystem. Their entire purpose is to generate revenue between the company and Telefónica or its clients. The company will also benefit from preferred procurement terms/product offerings (cloud, data etc..) with Telefónica.
With this “fit first” approach, we’ve signed multi-million partnerships and co-invested alongside top VCs in the space including YCombinator, Antler, Entrepreneur First, Atomico, Ericsson Ventures, Sequoia, Balderton, to name a few.
We are committed to partnering with the best VCs and ventures to build profitable and lasting partnerships with Telefónica.
⚡We run 3 strategically driven vertical programmes
We now run 3 programmes (down from 9) focused on verticals that align with Telefónica’s strategic roadmap.
Our programmes are for pre-Series A companies. We offer companies support in preparing their enterprise-scale proposition and/or developing their technology leveraging enterprise infrastructure:
- 5PRING: is the UK’s first 5G application accelerator, designed to ignite innovative solutions using 5G technology. It’s led by the consortium: O2, Deloitte, Wayra UK, Digital Catapult and catalysts West Midlands 5G (WM5G).
- Intelligent Mobility: funnels disruptive start-ups into the UK transport supply chain and helps them develop into global players. This programme is a partnership between Wayra UK and Connected Places Catapult.
- Edison TM Accelerator: is a healthtech acceleration programme led by GE Healthcare in partnership with Wayra UK. It’s founded on the belief that a collaborative ecosystem is key to accelerate innovative solutions in healthcare.
🚀We reformed our flagship London Programme
You may have heard of our Flagship London Programme? If you haven’t, it was a 10-month acceleration programme aimed at pre-seed to Series A companies with strategic alignment with Telefónica’s core business
We decided to shift from a typical acceleration programme to a ‘fit’ first, investment later strategy, focusing on Series + companies.
How does it work?
🔍 Our internal Innovation Scouting team work closely with Telefónica’s Business Units through the year to identify key challenges and scout global solutions to them.
💸 Once a “fit” opportunity is identified, we invest in the company.
🤝 In addition to the investment and an opportunity to work with Telefónica, the company receives post-investment support tailored to their scaling challenges. They also get access to Wayra’s ongoing portfolio support. This offers them all the tools, mentorship & coaching they need to take things to the next level and secure a partnership with Telefónica.
In other news…
🎉Virgin Media & O2 has launched!
The largest ever UK telecoms deal has officially launched, creating a stronger fixed and mobile competitor in the UK market for the benefit of consumers, businesses and the public sector. Alongside the joint venture comes a new leadership team. Read more here.
⏩What happens next?
Feel free to send us your most interesting companies! With the Joint Venture complete, there are more opportunities now than ever before!
