Wayra and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Sign Global Partnership

• The agreement covers a wide range of joint projects to accelerate Wayra start-ups and activities to generate an innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem that promotes, trains and supports young people in Latin American in high tech.
• Wayra academies in Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela and Argentina are the first to join the partnership, which in 2012 will be extended to its other labs in Chile and Brazil.
• With "Wayra Entrepreneurship Lab @ MIT", accelerated start-ups across the continent will be able to access MIT’s training, collaboration and mentoring ecosystem.

MEXICO CITY--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Wayra, Telefónica’s technological project accelerator, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have signed a Global Partnership today to promote Wayra’s accelerated start-ups. The agreement, signed during the official launch of the Wayra Mexico Academy, includes access to acceleration, training and mentoring programmes for Wayra’s projects in Latin America.

As part of this agreement the "Wayra Entrepreneurship Lab @ MIT" has been created. Here, Wayra's start-ups can bolster the business models and technological innovations of their projects through direct collaboration with the Institute.

Wayra academies in Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela and Argentina are the first to join the partnership, which in 2012 will be extended to the new academies set up in the first half of 2012 in Chile and Brazil. Going forward, the academies in Europe, also scheduled to be launched this year, may be added to the agreement.

Wayra Global Head Gonzalo Martín-Villa said: "This partnership is very important for us as a global tech accelerator by bringing to our acceleration services an ecosystem giant, like MIT, which boasts a strong track record and a network of skilled and knowledgeable experts".

For his part, Jhonatan Rotberg, Director of MIT NextLab Program and the person overseeing this initiative, highlighted the importance of Wayra’s contribution to the agreement: "We are very proud of working closely with Wayra, the largest tech start-up accelerator in Latin America. This agreement expands MIT’s technological innovation and entrepreneurial mission to Latin America alongside a partner that has proved its commitment to the region’s development”.

The global partnership between Wayra and MIT does not just cover initial acceleration, but rather, as Gonzalo Martín-Villa noted, “We want this partnership to last and we want to explore ways of creating and promoting a quality entrepreneurial ecosystem in Latin America, where there is a wealth of talent, and generating wealth in the home countries.”

This initiative reinforces Wayra’s aim of becoming the world’s largest ICT accelerator, attracting top-notch partners around the globe and offering its start-ups, wherever it has operations, the best tools and services to make them into successful businesses.

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About Wayra

Wayra is a Telefónica Digital initiative whose main aim is to promote innovation and identify talent in Latin America and Europe in the fields of Internet and new information and communication technologies (ICT). Its global project acceleration model helps entrepreneurs develop, providing them with technological tools, qualified mentors, a cutting edge working space of the financing required to accelerate their growth.

Present in eight countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Spain, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela), Wayra’s nine calls for projects have received more than five thousand new digital business proposals, making it the world’s leading platform for identifying technological talent in the ICT world. Its academies in Bogotá, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Madrid and soon in other cities of the world, currently host more than 60 acceleration start-ups.

About Telefónica Digital

Telefónica Digital is a global business division of Telefónica. Its mission is to seize the opportunities within the digital world and deliver new growth for Telefónica through research & development, venture capital, global partnerships and digital services such as video and entertainment, cloud computing, mobile advertising, M2M and eHealth. Telefónica Digital will deliver these innovative products and services to Telefónica’s 300 million customers as well as leveraging the power of the internet to enter new markets. It is headquartered in London with regional centres in Silicon Valley, Sao Paolo, Spain and Tel Aviv. Jajah, Terra, Tuenti and giffgaff are all part of the Telefónica Digital group of companies.

About MIT and MIT NextLab Program

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge is of the world’s leading institutions, with a strong focus on scientific and technological research.MIT NextLab (http://nextlab.mit.edu) focuses on how information and communication technologies (ICTs) can vastly improve the lives of people in emerging countries. It seeks to achieve continuous progress in these technologies, especially Internet and mobile telephony, teaching individuals new skills. This requires greater social responsibility on the part of institutions with citizens and consumers. Its mission includes playing an active role in this transformation, so that it can lead to greater equality, transparency and increased opportunities.

CONTACT:

Telefónica Digital
Nick Wilkins
Tel: +44 7712 020937
Email: nick.wilkins@o2.com
or
Telefónica Press Office
Jose Maria Hoyos Melendre
Tel: +34 91 482 87 85
Email: josemaria.hoyosmelendre@telefonica.es

KEYWORDS:   United States  Mexico  North America  Central America  Massachusetts

INDUSTRY KEYWORDS:   Technology  Internet  Networks  Telecommunications  Mobile/Wireless

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