Spanish company Telefónica is in the process of implementing a corporate venturing programme, with a global investment strategy and designs on maintaining the Spanish company’s global position by providing it with access to the technological investments.
Telefónica Ventures, the main venture unit of Telefónica, was moved into a digital unit at the company in September. London-based Telefónica Digital, under Mathew Key, has 2,500 employees, of which the majority are working on research and development.
The company is now tapped into the most important dealflow in technology around the world, after moving into Israel and Silicon Valley.
Tracy Isacke, director of the Silicon Valley office at Telefónica Digital, said: "We moved into Silicon Valley as part of the acquisition of [internet telephone company] Jajah [in 2010 for $207m from a syndicate including corporate venturing peer Intel Capital], and also now have a presence in Tel Aviv. We have the dealflow and opportunity to build around our presence there."
Telefónica has also recently set up two units to pursue dealflow unsuitable for the later-stage Telefónica Ventures, and which also tap more into the home markets of Telefónica itself in Latin America and Spain.
The company has quietly launched these two units, Wayra, an incubator, and Amerigo, which backs bigger companies, with an eye on covering the gamut of the venture sector.
Isacke said: "These units all fall into Telefónica Digital and are all aligned and working together. There will be companies that come out of Wayra, that get backed by Telefónica Ventures and Amerigo, creating synergies between the three operations."
Isacke added the company was backing venture because it believed it faced increased competition from new technology companies moving into telecommunications.
She said: "The strategy is more business-related, to create a business able to look to the future and what we might need in the future versus new competitors. We will be using venture capital as one of the tools in our kit to provide acceleration of our services."