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We believe all companies face two choices: disrupt or be disrupted.
At Wayra, we stand shoulder to shoulder with start-ups and corporates worldwide, uniting them to win by unlocking business opportunities that push them both forward, faster, together.
Over a decade in open innovation
Founded in 2011, Wayra is a long standing pioneer in corporate innovation. Our commitment to making innovation work at scale has been unwavering, with180+ trials and contracts established between start-ups and corporates as well as investment in start-ups to help them grow further. Our portfolio now has a market valuation of €2bn.
More connected than anyone else
Wayra is a globally connected innovation arm within Telefónica and Virgin Media O2. With a network of over 1000 partners across the start-up, corporate and VC communities we are perfectly positioned in the market to connect partners and unlock valuable business opportunities.
A proprietary method for frictionless innovation
Our game-changing method for innovation aims to strip out the friction. We know what it takes to deliver real impact, bringing a focus on efficiency and effectiveness while also solving the challenges of connecting across the corporate-start-up divide.
Investing in the exceptional
We have a portfolio of top start-ups operating around the globe, with proven product-market fit. Our approach brings together direct investment as well as strategic support to increase commercial traction with corporates. Once you join our portfolio, you unlock additional benefits including special procurement terms and perks with our partners.
Our History
Our 10 year journey of unlocking business opportunities between corporates and start-ups
2018 - 2020
Innovation that delivers
We shifted to start-up corporate collaboration in line with Telefónica’s strategic goals and real business outcomes. This impact-focused method is the foundation of how we deliver innovation today
2016 - 2018
Democratising entrepreneurship
With an ambition to make entrepreneurship accessible to all, we started partnering with other corporates to scale our start-up and corporate collaboration initiatives
2012 - 2016
Accelerator boom
Telefónica expanded this initiative, building local innovation ecosystems globally all connected to the Telefónica ecosystem. They built 7 Wayra hubs globally across 9 different countries
2011 - 2014
Pioneering open innovation
Wayra started with a mission to create local ecosystems where entrepreneurs could develop their ideas and Telefónica could be close to cutting edge innovation
Former co-founder of two start-ups in the telecom and energy sectors and management consultant, Bruno has been for many years in the crossroads between start-ups and corporates, driving commercial opportunities, problem-solving, strategic thinking, negotiations and execution. At Wayra, he led the transformation from a programmatic to a bespoke approach of business development to drive innovation in a large and complex organisations such as Telefónica and Virgin Media O2.
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Victoria Navazo
Head of Finance & Portfolio
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Victoria Navazo
Head of Finance & Portfolio
From Big Four to a construction multinational and re-converted into a social-for-good passionate. Now working in open innovation and managing a portfolio of over 100 companies doing her best to support them to reach their goals. A mother of 4, Victoria believes in people and is passionate about new technologies that positively impact society and the entrepreneurial ecosystem.
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Gela de Rato
Head of Business Development
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Gela de Rato
Head of Business Development
Gela is the person who helps make the magic happen between Telefonica Group, Virgin Media O2 areas and Wayra start-ups. Building strong commercial relationships, she has experience in commercial traction and building innovative networks. Before arriving in Wayra UK she worked in Madrid at Telefonica as an investment analyst in the VC team. Then she was part of the team that built the Open Future programme, which focus open innovation partnership.
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Remus Radvan
Head of Venture Strategy
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Remus Radvan
Head of Venture Strategy
Former serial entrepreneur moved into the venture space, working for a family office, a company builder and running accelerators, investments, and innovation programmes for Wayra. Also, part of the teaching staff on Venture Capital at UCL. His passion and entrepreneurial experience, both in consumer and enterprise, blended with mentoring experience in the venture world, gives Remus a solid foundation to be the right connector between start-ups, corporates and venture capital investors.
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Isabella Ghassemi-Smith
Head of Marketing
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Isabella Ghassemi-Smith
Head of Marketing
From starting in an accelerator, moving into a high growth scale-up and now working in open innovation, I know a thing or two about successfully marketing innovation inside organisations and externally to the right ecosystem.
I believe in building bridges between the companies of tomorrow and the enterprises of today to drive real partnership and impact.
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Maddie Rippon
Gereral Counsel
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Maddie Rippon
Gereral Counsel
Having worked in the space for over 20 years and widely acknowledged as one of the UK’s leading lawyers in early-stage tech, Maddie’s passion is helping founders achieve their objectives. Prior to her appointment as General Counsel, Maddie spent five years as Wayra’s legal coach and she just loves working with clever people on innovative ideas. Away from work, Maddie has two (nearly) grown-up children and loves food, movies, reading and sport. During the summer, Maddie will frequently be found on a cricket field or a golf course.
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Kyle Tsai
Investment Manager
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Kyle Tsai
Investment Manager
Kyle plays an active role in originating and managing start-up deal flow from Seed to Series C for both venture investment and business development opportunities with Virgin Media O2 and Telefonica. His key focus areas are 5G Private Networks, Connectivity, IoT, Enterprise SaaS, and emerging technologies with Telco user cases. Before Wayra, Kyle graduated from MSc Entrepreneurship at UCL and was selected as one of the top 75 fellows to join Included VC.
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Jake Christoforou
Investment Manager
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Jake Christoforou
Investment Manager
Jake originates and manages start-up deal flow from Seed to Series B for investment and commercial development opportunities across the Telefonica Group. His key focus areas are Cloud, Networks, Connectivity, Sustainability and AI/ML. Before Wayra, Jake worked in a VC fund executing on early stage investments.
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Izabela Atanasova
Office manager
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Izabela Atanasova
Office manager
The most amazing office manager we could have asked for!
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"Wayra's community is unique in the calibre of its people, but also in their shared belief and commitment to the power of collaboration to drive more impact. Working together, we are stronger as a whole, and everyone who joins us learns and thrives on this."
Hester, Community Engagement manager
"Thanks to Wayra we have a proven method that delivers tangible innovation outcomes with direct patient impact. They deliver faster than any corporate can and allowed us to unlock the immense opportunity the venture market offers."
Jan Beger, Senior Director of Digital Ecosystem, GE Healthcare
"Wayra has always been a great supporter of Unmanned Life. Introducing us to investors, and customers or providing us with infrastructure to grow. We could not think of a better partner to initiate the scale of our Company in the Corporate environment. And such a lovely group of people!"
Nicholas Zylberglajt, CEO, Unmanned Life
"Wayra has been a strong supporter of Aura Vision as we expanded our solution across all O2 Retail stores in the UK and we have on-boarded as an official supplier to the VMO2 business team as part of the O2 Motion platform. Wayra continues to broaden our horizons, enabling enterprise retailers to get access to our technology in new ways.”
Daniel Martinho-Corbishley, CEO & Co-Founder, Aura Vision
Join our community
Connect with founders, like-minded individuals, and stakeholders in the ecosystem!
Congratulations to MATSUKO Holographic Communication who has been selected as a finalist in the Extended Reality & Immersive Technology category for the 14th annual #SXSW Pitch®! (formerly SXSW Accelerator)
Wayra UK
February 12, 2023
200+ registrants, 9 pitches, 1 panel - all to celebrate 6 cohorts of unlocking opportunity between #corporates and #start-ups in the Intelligent Mobility space.
Wayra UK
January 30, 2023
That's a wrap! #EdisonAccelerator After six months of working together between start-ups, healthcare providers and GE HealthCare, we've showcased what we’ve achieved in the second cohort of the Edison Accelerator!
Wayra UK
January 26, 2023
Look at all the dancing Kings and Queens we have on our dance floor at the shard Christmas party!
Wayra UK
December 30, 2022
40 decision-makers from Virgin Media O2 and leading VCs in the space to discuss #dataCollaboration
Wayra UK
November 15, 2022
"Honest | Fair | Empathetic | Hustle" - Some of the traits drawn out in one of the sessions in Wayra UK's leadership offsite - principles we stand by as a company.
Wayra UK
March 15, 2022
Look at all the dancing Kings and Queens we have on our dance floor at the shard Christmas party!
2022 has been an incredible year for us. Check our what we've been doing and what we've achieved in 2022!
Wayra UK
February 13, 2023
For the first time, Wayra UK was in @websummit, one of the biggest tech conference in the world. Let's see what a day at Web Summit looks like!
#WebSummit #Vlog #Experience
Wayra UK
February 13, 2023
2022 has been an incredible year for us. Check our what we've been doing and what we've achieved in 2022!
Calling all #corproates, #startups & #VCs that want to talk about best practices of unlocking business opportunities by innovating with start-ups @WayraGermany
@Wayra
Wayra UK
November 17, 2022
rene Gomez and Global Managing Director of @Wayra, Andrés Saborido have visited Wayra UK!
Wayra UK
October 17, 2022
@chemaalonso, Chief Digital Officer at @Telefonica_En, has officially launched #Open2Metaverse - a worldwide search for disruptive #metaverse technologies.
Wayra UK
March 23, 2022
Kicking off #2022 - Yesterday we had our first @WayraUK team meeting of the year in #VR!
Wayra UK
January 13, 2022
@chemaalonso, Chief Digital Officer at @Telefonica_En, has officially launched #Open2Metaverse - a worldwide search for disruptive #metaverse technologies.
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