Programme vital to ‘Silicon Valley’ roll-out

Ireland has become the 10th country in the world where Telefónica, O2’s parent company, has launched its global technology accelerator programme, Wayra.

Wayra, which means ‘wind’ in Quechua, a language of the central Andes, is part of Telefónica’s new global digital unit and is set to become the world’s largest technology accelerator programme.

The programme has been designed to develop future ‘Silicon Valleys’ in the countries where Telefónica is present.

Global director for Wayra, Gonzalo Martin-Villa said: “Launching in Ireland is a significant milestone for Wayra, Ireland has one of the most developed entrepreneurial eco-systems in Europe and is at the forefront of many technology trends. Our growing international network of entrepreneurs, spanning 10 countries and two continents, will benefit from Ireland being part of this, and we believe that Irish entrepreneurs will also benefit from being part of this global community.”

Irish technology entrepreneurs can apply to take part in Wayra at www.wayra.org/en/ireland, the 10 best ideas each receiving an investment of up to €50,000 and access to a new state-of-the-art work space — the Wayra Academy — in O2’s headquarters in Dublin’s Docklands.

After six months, Wayra projects are introduced to a network of venture capitalists for next stage funding. In exchange for initial financing Telefónica takes a 10% stake in their business and also receives first refusal rights to offer products.