Telefónica Initiates Program for IoT, Blockchain, and AI Startups

May 28, 2020
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Telefónica launches innovative startup activation program with the Wayra lab for Internet of Things (IoT), Blockchain, and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Telefónica Initiates Program for IoT, Blockchain, and AI Startups

●    Telco group Telefónica is opening up access to its own technology platforms for start-ups
●  Start-ups in the areas of Internet of Things, Blockchain, and Artificial Intelligence can participate
●   Together with the innovation hub wayra, a long-term relationship between the start-up and Telefónica will be established

 

Munich, May 28, 2020 – The telecommunications group Telefónica has initiated an activation program for innovative start-ups together with its own innovation hub wayra. The program will focus on the technology areas Internet of Things (IoT), Blockchain, BigData, and Artificial Intelligence (AI). For the duration of the six-month program, the start-ups will be allowed to learn more about the various platforms of the telecommunications group and use them via API interfaces. Start-ups can apply for participation in the program until June 22 on the website.

 

Besides, specific pilot projects involving Telefónica's corporate customer portfolio are to be developed with the start-ups. An analysis is also to be carried out to evaluate investment opportunities, along with the group's own innovation hub wayra, which will advise and support the start-ups within the framework of the program.

 

"The program gives founders access to Telefónica's extensive technology portfolio", says Florian Bogenschütz, Managing Director of wayra Germany. For start-ups, this provides a unique opportunity to test their solutions in global infrastructure in a resilient manner. They also have the chance to win Telefónica as a customer and thus establish their own solution on the market in the long term.

 

IoT, Blockchain and AI: three technologies for a technological present

 

Companies that qualify for the IoT category will have access for six months to Kite, an IoT connectivity platform developed by Telefónica that allows start-ups to manage their own solution in an integrated way. They will also have the opportunity to apply for LPWA connectivity (LPWA = Low Power WideArea Network, a technology for networking distributed low energy devices) and access to the Thinx laboratories in Madrid and Barcelona, where they can use prototypes and carry out tests in a real environment.

 

Blockchain-start-ups will have access to Telefónica's TrustOS modules, a platform that makes it easy for companies to incorporate the main benefits of immutability and transparency inherent to the technology into their value proposition. Thanks to this hybrid solution developed by Telefónica (which combines public and private networks), companies will be able to benefit simultaneously from the transparency and confidence of public networks, guaranteeing the performance and scalability necessary for business operations.

 

Start-ups joining the program in the areas of Big Data and ArtificialIntelligence will be given access to the LUCA suite. The LUCA-Suite is an in-house developed platform that allows to automate the data processing in minutes, integrating Machine Learning capabilities in an easy and intuitive way. In this way, without prior knowledge of automatic learning, it is possible to make predictions that increase business opportunities.

 

The application portal of the activation program is open to start-ups from Germany, Spain, and Great Britain until June 22. More information and application forms are available at here.

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About Wayra Germany

Wayra Germany is the Open Innovation Hub of telecommunications group Telefónica. As an early-stage investment arm, Wayra Germany scales technology-oriented start-ups. The focus is on the venture client model, which enables start-ups from the fields of Internet of Things, data analytics, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence to win Telefónica as customers for products and solutions - while offering unique access to the infrastructure of the global telecommunications company. Telefónica, in turn, benefits from the innovative ideas of the start-ups, on the one hand, to improve processes within the Telefónica Group and, on the other hand, to develop new products for Telefónica brands. Wayra Germany was recently named Germany's best digital lab of a corporate group by Infront Consulting and the business magazine Capital.
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