faqs

According to WAYRA’s policy, the only projects that can receive financing and form part of the acceleration services are those that have not received over €100,000 (one hundred thousand euros) in subsidies or financing and those that are currently not participating in an acceleration program that prevents them from moving into WAYRA’s facilities in the country of competition during the acceleration period.

Yes. WAYRA accepts participants on their own or in teams, provided that they have a maximum of 5 people. The teams must select, from among them, an authorized representative.

Yes. WAYRA accepts participants on their own or in teams, provided that they have a maximum of 5 people. The teams must select, from among them, an authorized representative.

No. WAYRA will be in charge of assessing your proposal and, if you are chosen, it will support you in the acceleration and financing process but we cannot help you find collaborators for your team. Remember that you can enter on your own and, if your project is chosen to enter WAYRA, we will provide you with access to our partner and mentor network.

No. Each Applicant can only head a single proposal.

Yes. WAYRA has been created with an international vocation, focusing on Latin America, Spain and Europe. Nevertheless, and since the Chosen Projects will have to be accelerated in the country where the competition was launched, the Applicants must be a national of, or resident in, that country, so that they can be at WAYRA’s facilities in that country during the whole acceleration process (6-12 months).

Yes, but only if you have a residence permit pursuant to the legislation in force in that country since the acceleration will take place in the country where the competition was launched.

To participate you have to be over 18 when presenting the Proposal.

No. If you have been Chosen to enter the accelerator, WAYRA will advise, facilitate and provide the necessary support so that all the Projects that do not have an active company can incorporate one.

Yes. The company cannot have existed for more than 24 months (since the start of commercial activity) nor received over €100,000 (one hundred thousand euros) in financing before the Competition.

The projects must imply new business ideas with a large growth component and the use of new technologies, which will preferably fit into some of the categories defined in the rules: video, cloud services, financial services, future communications, user modeling, M2M, security, e-health, mobile apps and games, network & systems, consumer Internet services, social innovation, e-commerce and localization services.

Nevertheless, the categories are not limited, so other projects that have a technological innovation project can enter, even if they do not fit into any of those categories

In the project description, you can indicate in which category you think best fits your Proposal. Nevertheless, the WAYRA team will finally classify the projects in the categories.

In this case, and in accordance with WAYRA’s policy, you can only enter the project that meets our criteria. If you are chosen, the best thing to do is to dissociate that project from the other projects of the same company and transfer it to an independent company, with which WAYRA will establish the corresponding relations.

No. You can send your Proposal whether your project is in one of the phases prior to the commercial launch (from an idea on paper to a pre-product or pre-commercial beta) or whether it is already in operation (provided that no more than 24 months have elapsed since the start of the commercial activity).

The projects can be in any phase of development. They can be an idea that is only on paper, an idea that has a demonstration (flash, clickable ppt, etc.), a functional prototype, a pre-product (pre-commercial beta) or an industrializable product. The requirement for this is that no more than 24 months must have elapsed since the start of marketing the product or service.

In 2011, was launched in the following countries: Colombia, Spain, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Venezuela and Chile. In 2012 the aim is to launch Wayra in several countries in Europe, firstly UK, GErmany, Ireland, Poland, Czech Republic. And later will be added new countries.
All this information can be found on www.wayra.org or by registering on the website to promptly receive all the news about WAYRA.

Yes. WAYRA has been created with an international vocation, focusing on Latin America and Spain. Nevertheless, and since the Chosen Projects will have to be accelerated in the country where the competition was launched, the Applicants must be a national of, or resident in, that country, so that they can be at WAYRA’s facilities in that country during the whole acceleration process (6-12 months).

Yes, but only if you have a residence permit pursuant to the legislation in force in that country since the acceleration will take place in the country where the competition was launched.

The projects must meet the innovation criteria stated in our rules, and no more than 24 months must have elapsed since the start of commercial activity. Provided that your project is innovative, has a certain technological component and its commercial activity has not started in more than 24 months, you can send it as your proposal. Remember that you must also reside in the country of competition so that you can participate in WAYRA’s acceleration services.

You should send your project proposal to the competition of the country where you reside. Remember that at least one person from the team must live in the country of competition since he/she has to move to the WAYRA facilities in order to use the acceleration services.

Each competition has a registration period which will be notified at the time. All the information is available on www.WAYRA.org or you can register on the website to promptly receive all the news about WAYRA. The objective is to make at least one proposal per country per year.

You can send your project directly through WAYRA’s website (www.WAYRA.org) by clicking on the WAYRA competition of your country of residence.

We recommend this since it enables us to make a more precise assessment of the project. If your proposal is interesting, we will contact you if we need further information.

WAYRA’s project selection team will continually assess and classify the proposals received. Once that process has been completed (never before the end of the competition), WAYRA will contact the participants who have been chosen to form part of the WayraStartupWeek. That communication will be made at least 2 weeks before the dates scheduled for the event. WAYRA will also contact the participants who have not been chosen to inform them of the process results.

There are several phases in which the proposals received are pre-assessed and assessed, and this will end with the selection of the most interesting projects that will participate in the WayraStartupWeek, where a jury will decide which proposals will win WAYRA’s acceleration.
The criteria that will be taken into account when assessing the Project are as follows: (i) innovative and disruptive nature; (ii) technological novelty; and (iii) opportunity attractiveness.

The WAYRA selection team will assess the proposals individually and make a decision based on their potential and innovative nature, regardless of any similar proposals in the same or other competitions.

No. Only the shortlisted projects (30) will have free tickets to the Campus Party, where the last Project selection process for entering the acceleration process will take place.

During the WayraStartupWeek, the selected teams will present their ideas and projects to a Jury comprising members freely designated by Wayra.

The selection process is carried out in an objective way and the criteria taken into account to assess each project will be as follows: (i) innovative and disruptive nature; (ii) technological novelty; and (iii) opportunity attractiveness.

Because of the large amount of proposals received, we are unable to provide individual information about the reasons for not choosing a project. Nevertheless, WAYRA will inform you at the time whether or not your project has been chosen.

To meet the participation requirements, at least one person from the team must devote full time to the idea and move to the WAYRA space.

After selecting the projects, and coinciding with the start of the acceleration services, WAYRA will provide financing of 30,000-70,000 dollars based on the project assessment in terms of its maturity and need. In exchange, WAYRA will receive a stake in your company, either directly or through an option or any other form of financing that we agree upon. Additionally, WAYRA and the other firms in its group of companies will sign preferential rights agreements with you to market and/or acquire the products, services and/or innovations registered or registrable resulting from your company.

Yes. The acceleration services provided to the WAYRA participants include support to seek financing (in addition to the initial financing received from WAYRA).

WAYRA will provide, among others, the following acceleration services to the selected projects:
- Project management support: day-to-day administration, legal advice, training courses, conferences, direct monitoring by the WAYRA management team, etc.
- Tech support: WAYRA’s friends include Telefónica I+D, one of the leading private R&D centers in Spain in terms of activity and resources. This means that, if the opportunity is worth it, you will be able to access its tech know-how in key areas for developing your project.
- Work space: WAYRA makes an avant-garde, stimulating and creative space available to the selected teams in each of the countries that is designed especially to fast-track your project.
- Access to additional private financing (financing rounds) and public funding (grants and subsidies) through our network of business angels, mentors and partners.

Yes. The acceleration services proposed by WAYRA are for guidance purposes and will be adapted to the needs of the selected projects. If your project is chosen to enter WAYRA, the management team in charge of the acceleration services in the corresponding country will analyze your case individually and will make the necessary contacts, know-how and processes available to you so that you can launch your project. You can, of course, provide your own comments to the management team, partners and mentors regarding additional needs or services as you deem fit.

Periodically, the WAYRA team will analyze the project’s progression and decide whether it meets the WAYRA initiative’s objectives. If, as a result of the project performance and based on the criterion of the director or mentors of WAYRA, it is decided that the concept or degree of maturity of those projects does not meet WAYRA’s objectives, the team must leave the facilities, no matter what the relations they wish to maintain with the mentors and partners.

After a 6-12 month period, the acceleration process at the WAYRA facilities will be completed, no matter what the relations you, your mentors and partners have freely decided to maintain.

WAYRA shall provide confidential treatment to all the information received in relation to the Projects. The use of that information shall be exclusively for the purposes of the competition and selection process, and it shall not be disseminated in any event.

Sending a Proposal does not mean any assignment of rights, intellectual or industrial property, or any other type of rights on it. The Applicant maintains all his/her rights, ownership and interest in his/her registrable trademarks.
The only right reserved to WAYRA for sending a Proposal is the advertising use of the Applicants’ images in the communications made as a result of the WAYRA Start Up Week if they are chosen.

WAYRA shall provide confidential treatment to all the information received in relation to the Projects. The use of that information shall be exclusively for the purposes of the competition and selection process.
Likewise, the data received shall be subject to the applicable personal data protection regulations, and the applicants can request their right to access, rectify and cancel the data.