Wayra’s 10 ‘’Social Ventures’’ raise more than £1 million before their demoDay

Wayra UK, which is part of the world’s largest start-up accelerator with 14 Academies around the globe, is proud to announce that the first demoDay for the UnLtd programme took place on 10 April, 2014.

The Wayra UnLtd acceleration programme encompasses the UK’s best digital tech start-ups, backed by Telefónica and the UK Government in partnership with UnLtd, the world’s largest supporter of social entrepreneurs. Wayra UnLtd was excited to share the progress made by its social entrepreneurs since joining the programme in September 2013, with highlights including a total of over £1million of follow-on investment secured by the revenue generating social start-ups. Five of the start-ups are already working with Telefónica and 60% of the overall Wayra UnLtd teams are led by female CEOs. Three of the businesses that demonstrated their products also took part in the Duke of York’s Pitch @ Palace event last week. Skin Analyics, Karisma Kidz and Third Learning Space were involved in the Pitch @ Palace initiative, with Skin Analytics making it to the finals at St. James’ Palace where they pitched to HRH The Duke of York, Jonathan Ross, over 200 investors and CEOs.

Neil Daly, Founder of Skin Analytics said; ‘’Our time at Wayra helped to transform us from a small unknown company, to an up and coming mobile health startup backed by one of the world’s largest mobile companies, one of the world’s largest consumer brands and soon, one of the world’s largest pharma companies.’’

Tom Hooper, Founder of Third Space Learning said; ‘’Our business has transformed since we launched at the start of Wayra. We have moved from 7 schools to 70, we’ve signed a 2 year research study with the Department for Education, and raised a further £450,000 funding. We are hoping to start working with Telefónica in emerging markets, providing our technology as a platform for education systems. The visibility and support that Wayra have provided have been brilliant.’’

Gary Stewart, Director of Wayra UK and Wayra UnLtd. concluded the comments with; ‘’I am amazed to see the immense traction that our start-ups have obtained in such a short period of time. More than £1 million raised and five teams already working with Telefónica. On top of it all, they have a tremendous social impact.’’

The keynote address was given by Kate Robertson, Co-Global President at Havas Media Worldwide, and Co-Founder of One Young World, an organisation that champions the importance of social business and global youth leadership. There was also an introduction from Gary Stewart who is the Director of Wayra UK and Wayra UnLtd as well as Simon Devonshire who is the Director of Wayra Europe.

Below is a list of the start-ups that presented:

• Discoverables/UP: http://upupup.io Helping businesses feel confident about training and supporting diverse young talent
• DNAdigest: http://DNAdigest.org  Enabling open-access and secure data sharing for the benefit of genomics research. Securing the data – sharing the knowledge.
• Karisma Kidz: http://www.karismakidz.com  Improving emotional intelligence in a fun and engaging way that is accessible and appealing to children
• Third Space Learning: www.thirdspacelearning.com   Using technology to connect maths specialists from around the world to schools across the UK.
• Lingoing: www.lingoing.com  An innovative online system that provides an easy, straightforward and value for money way to source Language Services Professionals.
• MySupportAssistant: www.mysupportassistant.com  Matching people with care and support needs with people who can provide it.
• Provenance: www.projectprovenance.com  An online platform for transparency, helping people buy things from real people and places through a union of open data with e-commerce.
• Skin Analytics: www.skin-analytics.com  Improving healthcare by turning smartphones into data collection devices and giving GPs more information to aid diagnosis.
• StudentFunder: www.studentfunder.com By making it safer and easier to invest in people, StudentFunder improves access to education employment and enterprise.
• The DoNation: www.thedonation.org.uk   A social tool to encourage behaviour change, building a nation of Doers through #DonateByDoing & #DoGood4Biz.