Telefónica’s new technology accelerator programme in Dublin has issued a last call for entries for its first round of funding. Digital entrepreneurs have until 24 June to submit their project ideas.
Interested entrepreneurs may submit their entries to online.
Aimed at early stage technology start-ups in particular, Wayra is looking for ideas and projects in the fields of cloud services, financial services, future communications, user modelling, M2M, security, e-health, e-learning, mobile applications and games, network/systems, consumer internet services, e-commerce, location-based services, social innovation or in any other digital field associated with mobile software or the web environment.
Wayra Week Dublin
From all submissions received, a shortlist of the best ideas will be invited to take part in Wayra Week in Dublin in early September.
During Wayra Week, the entrepreneurs will pitch their ideas to an independent panel of judges comprising representatives from Wayra, Telefónica and O2, independent venture capitalists and technology experts – with 10 ideas ultimately being successful.
Each of the 10 best projects will receive an investment of up to €50,000 and access to a new state-of-the-art workspace – the Wayra Academy – in O2’s headquarters in Dublin’s Docklands. Successful projects initially spend six months in the Wayra Academy, receiving help to accelerate their business, and technical and commercial support to further develop their ideas.
At the end of the six months, projects are introduced to a network of investors for next-stage funding, and a new batch of 10 projects enter the academy for a further six-month period.
In exchange for initial financing, Telefónica takes up to a 10pc stake in their business and also receives first refusal rights to offer products and services developed by successful projects to its 300m global customers, though it does not require the entrepreneurs to give it exclusivity.
Media technology image via Shutterstock
