Gonzalo Martín-Villa (pictured) has been confirmed to run Spain-based telecommunications firm Telefónica’s Open Future corporate venturing initiative as well as keeping the chief innovation officer he has held since the end of 2015.
The promotion follows the recent departure of Javier Placer, ranked 23rd on the Global Corporate Venturing Powerlist in 2017.
Placer took over corporate venturing and open innovation strategy at Telefónica in 2013, two years after joining the company. He had been expected to leave in autumn at his own initiative following the appointment of Ángel Vilá as Telefónica’s CEO of in July this year.
Placer is the nephew of César Alierta, formerly Telefónica’s president before he was replaced by José María Álvarez-Pallete, who then brought in Vilá as the new chief executive.
Martín-Villa has been involved with Open Future’s core constituents since co-founding Wayra, its global startup accelerator, alongside then-director Javier Santiso in 2011.
Wayra has backed hundreds of entrepreneurs, primarily in Latin America and Europe but increasingly in Asia through its partnership with Tsinghua University in China.
Effectively, the job moves will result in Telefonica simplifying its structure by integrating Telefónica Open Future into its overall innovation activities.
In addition to Wayra, Open Future runs incubator co-working spaces, Latin America-focused venture capital fund-of-funds initiative Amerigo and late-stage investment unit Telefónica Ventures.
Telefónica had €275m ($300m) invested in 680 companies through Open Future, led by Placer’s right-hand person, general manager Ana Segurado, as of the end of 2016.
Segurado, a GCV Rising Star this year, joined Telefónica in 2012 to launch Amerigo, a network of VC funds with public and private co-investors focusing on tech investments, before expanding her role to the other areas under Open Future.
Amerigo now has six funds with an aggregated size of €345m, including Telefónica’s commitments, in Germany, Spain, Brazil, Mexico, Peru, Colombia and Chile. It has 76 companies in its portfolio, including Job&Talent, Carto and Adjust, and its exits include Ticketbits.
Wayra, which operates through 11 spaces in 10 countries, has been Telefónica’s primary vehicle by volume, having invested €30m in more than 500 startups worldwide since its launch in 2011. Volo, which was started at the Munich Wayra accelerator, was sold to e-commerce holding group Rocket Internet in 2015.
Since 2014, Segurado has led Telefónica Ventures, which focuses on North America, Israel and Europe. The unit has invested more than €60m in 19 companies, including Quantenna, Sigfox, Boku and Cyanogen, and exited others, such as Box and Amobee.
For her Rising Star profile in January, Segurado said: “Telefónica Open Future has achieved €100m of cumulated revenues and savings for Grupo Telefónica, coming as a result of the collaboration between Telefónica and the portfolio companies.”