Claudio Barahona Jacobs has left Wayra Chile, a regional startup accelerator for Spain-listed telecommunications group Telefónica, and joined Chile-based venture capital fund Alaya Capital Partners.
Movistar Innova, an entrepreneurial co-working centre and incubator backed by Telefónica Chile’s Movistar subsidiary, hired Barahona in 2011 as senior innovation product manager. He additionally assumed the head of acceleration role at Wayra Chile to oversee early-stage investments.
Telefónica Open Future, Telefónica’s open innovation arm and Movistar Innova’s successor, appointed Barahona country manager for Chile in 2016 to run corporate venture capital (CVC) initiatives in the country including Wayra, fund-of-funds network Amerigo and corporate venturing vehicle Telefónica Ventures.
Barahona was promoted to chief open innovation officer of Movistar Chile in September 2018 as part of his duties at Wayra, and he managed network engagements with the government, VC firms and corporate VC peers.
The move came in the wake of Wayra’s restructuring efforts in Latin America that were reported by Diario Financiero in October 2019, closing physical offices in Chile, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela in a bid to strengthen its presence in Argentina and Colombia.
Barahona will serve as a managing partner at Alaya, role that will entail leveraging his experience in Chile and the broader Latin American innovation ecosystem to promote CVC practice and invest in entrepreneurial projects in the region.
Photo of Claudio Barahona Jacobs courtesy of Alaya Capital Partners.
