Wayra, Telefónica ’s initiative to promote innovation and the detection of new talents in the field of ICT globally, today entered into an Agreement with Virtue Inno Valley (“VIV”), one of the most active TMT incubators in China backed by the renowned Tsinghua University, through which VIV has become a member of the Wayra Global Alliance.

This agreement will entitle both parties to promote and share with each other in the field of entrepreneurial project pool, expertise, mentoring programs, training, institutional relations, media, financial and commercial resources and investment opportunities.

“The Wayra Global Alliance is born with the vision to create a great international network of innovation detection and reduce the gap of investment and commercial opportunities between geographical regions through technology. Thus, we are very happy to extend our global footprint to China through our alliance with Virtue Inno Valley, which provides us with immediate access to early stage innovations emerging from the largest TMT market in the world with 1.4 billion population and already more than 800 million mobile internet users”, said Gonzalo Martin-Villa, CEO of Wayra. “In the past years, we have consolidated operations in Europe and Latin America, and extending the Wayra network to Asia is a great step for us to create something remarkable in the start-up industry”.

"By joining the Wayra Global Alliance, Virtue Inno Valley will get immediate access to the Wayra global network of innovation accelerators, with already 14 Wayra Academies around the globe. Selected Chinese TMT start-ups accelerated by Virtue Inno Valley will have the opportunity to go international through the Wayra global network, including extensive international mentor, partnership and investor resources. Successful products developed by Chinese start-ups will also have the opportunity to get access to more than 320 mill customers of Telefónica in 24 countries worldwide”, said Li Zhu, Executive Director of Virtue Inno Valley.