Wayra, the incubator and accelerator network of Spain telecommunications Telefónica, is now spreading its wings to China. Wayra has to date had a strong presence in Europe and Latin America, which makes this particular partnership significant and a sign of stronger Sino-Latin relations in the telecommunications and software application sectors.
With this agreement now set, both parties can now promote and share projects, expertise, mentoring programs, training, institutional relations, media, financial and commercial resources and investment opportunities.
“We are very happy to extend our global footprint to China through our alliance with Virtue Inno Valley, which provides us with immediate access to early stage innovations emerging from the largest TMT market in the world with 1.4 billion population and already more than 800 million mobile internet users”, said Gonzalo Martin-Villa, CEO of Wayra.
Martin-Villa said that in recent years, Wayra has consolidated operations in Europe and Latin America, and is extending the Wayra network to Asia, which is a “great step for us to create something remarkable in the start-up industry”.
Virtue Inno Valley will get immediate access to the Wayra global network of accelerators, with already 14 Wayra Academies around the globe.
Selected Chinese TMT start-ups accelerated by Virtue Inno Valley will have the opportunity to go international through the Wayra global network, including extensive international mentoring, partnerships and access to investor resources.
“Successful products developed by Chinese start-ups will also have the opportunity to get access to more than 320 million customers of Telefónica in 24 countries worldwide”, said Li Zhu, executive director of Virtue Inno Valley.
Photo: Gonzalo Martin-Villa, CEO of Wayra