Wayra comes to London – O2 opens doors to UK academy

It’s been a busy day for our team in the UK capital, as today we’re very excited to be opening the doors to Wayra London.

For those who don’t know it yet, Wayra is Telefónica’s business incubator, which aims to help exciting digital start-up companies by providing them with thousands of pounds worth of funding to get their ideas off the ground, as well as mentoring, access to legal and financial advice, new technologies and premises, as they get their fledgling companies up and running.

It’s a programme that’s already helping small business’ success in nine other countries across South America and Europe. For the UK, we think it’s an especially exciting prospect because small enterprise is such an important part of the economy – 80% of UK workers are now employed by SMEs. But while they’re the engines of growth both in the UK and abroad, for young entrepreneurs, getting ideas off the ground in an unforgiving economic climate is increasingly tough.

We hope that the new academy will give some of them the support they need to succeed.

Our doors open for applications from today – so if you’ve got an exciting idea for a digital business and you think Wayra could help, please pay us a visit at www.wayra.org/en/wayra-uk-call-2012 for more details on how to apply. Good luck!