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Wayra (Telefonica)
We supported Wayra’s portfolio companies in LatAm on growth and investment readiness topics with tailored 1-1 mentoring sessions
#Agritech #B2B SaaS #Consumer SaaS #E-Commerce #Edtech #Fintech #Gaming #Hospitality & Tourism #Logistics #Latin America
Company & Background
Wayra is the corporate accelerator and open innovation arm of the Telefonica group, which has invested in around 400 startups since inception. In Latin America Telefonica has around 40% of market share and is mainly represented by the Movistar brand, and Wayra invested in 100+ startups.
Challenges & Needs
Wayra wanted to boost international growth and fundraising knowledge of their portfolio and was looking to collaborate with a brand that could understand the culture, speak the local languages, and had extensive startup development experience, especially someone agnostic to industries, development stages, funding paths, since Wayra’s portfolio was so diverse to begin with.
Solutions & Impact
We were selected by Wayra and their partner Swisscontact, a Swiss development agency active in emerging markets, and we provided onsite workshops and 1-1 sessions with entrepreneurs and online support after the program to make sure that topics were executed properly. Plenty of startups could profit from the mentoring and consulting, we reached a NPS of 92 and several companies contracted us for focused work with them directly after the program.
These messages keep our motivation high and our team going strong
” Frank from FFA helped our portfolio companies a lot and we are really thankful that he took the time and resources to support them on international growth and fundraising topics. “
Jaime Sotomayor
” Frank from FFA helped our portfolio companies a lot and we are really thankful that he took the time and resources to support them on international growth and fundraising topics. “
Jaime Sotomayor
Former Program Manager & Director | Wayra Hispam
Company & Background
Wayra is the corporate accelerator and open innovation arm of the Telefonica group, which has invested in around 400 startups since inception. In Latin America Telefonica has around 40% of market share and is mainly represented by the Movistar brand, and Wayra invested in 100+ startups.
https://hispam.wayra.com/startups
Challenges & Needs
Wayra wanted to boost international growth and fundraising knowledge of their portfolio and was looking to collaborate with a brand that could understand the culture, speak the local languages, and had extensive startup development experience, especially someone agnostic to type of products and business models (B2B or B2C SaaS, marketplaces, tech solutions, hybrid HW/SW solutions, ecc), to industries (including Telco, IoT, Fintech, Cybersecurity, Logistics, Social Networks, Retail, eHealth, Healthtech, EdTech, LegalTech, Tourism, Gaming, ecc), to development stages and funding paths (from early seed to Series A ready), since Wayra’s portfolio was so diverse to begin with.
Here an excerpt of the companies that were in the portfolio and that we worked with on quite specific requirements and challenges, there were dozens more that are only listed at the end:
- Mapsalud (B2B SaaS platform handling health insurance matters in corporations) – wanted to analyse the opportunity to enter new markets in the region and also explore the possibility to expand the product offering to more generic HR management.
- Quantico (B2B SaaS platform providing advanced social media and sentiment analysis) – wanted to explore international market entry and discover a leaner and more automated sales ops and account management process
- Quantum Talent (B2B SaaS platform supporting large brands with massive short-term hiring needs) – wanted to understand the international VC landscape and the variables needed (in terms of MRR/ARR and related to growth cases) to raise a formal Series A VC funding round.
- Fitco (B2B ERP and SaaS process management platform and a B2C SaaS platform for gym customers) – wanted to understand new tactics to reach new customer segments in new regional markets, pricing of a specific B2B SaaS package, and to brainstorm and spar on a new data-driven business model to be monetized with large sports brands.
Solutions & Impact
We were selected by Wayra and their partner Swisscontact, a Swiss development agency active in emerging markets, and we provided onsite workshops and 1-1 sessions with entrepreneurs and online support after the program to make sure that topics were executed properly.
Introductory 5-minute pitch with a quick Q&A and a high level review of whatwas not clear in the eyes of a veteran venture expert.- Explored and collected the top 3 challenges, problems, and opportunities that could create the biggest impact in the short- and mid-term
- Elaborated some initial ideas and paths moving forward, sharing insights, examples, best practices and tools that could be used to achieve the next steps
- After the sessions we followed up, providing specific examples, tools and examples on how we used them to solve problems, provided any meaningful intros to stakeholders in the markets (freelancers, investors, ecc)
- We created an action plan and stood in touch with the different startups throughout and after the program to ensure a successful implementation of the ideas and plans.
In the next 12 months after the collaboration Quantum Talent, Fitco, and many others could raise theirinternational funding rounds, and many more could reach significant funding and growth milestones and several companies contracted us for focused work with them directly after the program.
After the program we could reach a NPS of 92, which is above our normal average number in such diverse programs.
