Seven months ago, we interviewed Wayra Colombia, an initiative by Telefónica Open Future, the global enterprising network that aims at identifying talents in Latin America and Europe in the field of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). We have now retaken the conversation with this startup accelerator in order to learn details about the most outstanding results in the year that is about to come to an end; moreover, they agreed to send us a ranking made up of its most successful startups.
WAYRA COLOMBIA’S FIGURES:
- Projects accelerated: 52
- Companies in the portfolio: 26
- Proposals received: + 3K
- Direct jobs created: 660
- Investment by Wayra: USD 1.5 B
- Investment by third parties: USD 6 B
- Companies’ sales over the past year: USD 15.5 B
- Companies’ historic sales: USD 21 B
- Companies working with Telefónica: 10
This is the ranking of the best startups accelerated by Wayra Colombia in 2016:
A platform that allows advertising brands to find the proper influencers for their campaigns on social networks, and social network users to monetize their influence level in these means. It has become a benchmark and successful example in terms of Influencer Marketing, a trend that is growing stronger in the digital marketing field. The platform counts on the biggest network of influencers in Latin America and the United States, and the list of clients includes such acclaimed brands as Coca Cola, Sony, Starbucks, Microsoft and Renault.
- Past year sales: 10 million dollars
- Historic sales: 13 million dollars
- Annual sales growth: 500%
- Direct jobs generated: 70
- External investment received: Over 3 million dollars
- Main clients: Coca Cola, Sony, Adidas, Visa, Microsoft,
- Is the company doing business with Telefónica? Yes, in Colombia and Peru
- Countries with operations: Colombia, United States, Peru, Venezuela, Ecuador, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico
- In less than three years, it already runs operations in 8 countries and has received investments totaling 3 million dollars. The platform is presently expanding its operations in the United States and looks forward to having a turnover of 10 million dollars by the end of 2016. It is an Influencer Marketing leader in the region.
It is a professional cleanliness service company for homes and small offices. The company uses technology to choose, hire, train and manage a huge group of housemaids, thus giving them a formal job and economic stability, and allowing the final customer to stop being worried about the hiring of this type of employees. It operates in Bogota, Cali and Medellin.
- Past year sales: 1.3 million dollars
- Historic sales: 1.6 million dollars
- Annual sales growth: 16% month by month
- Direct jobs generated: 360
- Social Impact: 28% increase in the wage of vulnerable population.
- External investment received (without counting Wayra’s capital): 400 thousand dollars
- Is the company doing business with Telefónica? It is building an alliance
- Countries with operations: Colombia
It is the medical questions-answers platform with the largest growth in Latin America, which connects patients and doctors by means of the Internet. The people find better answers to their medical questions on the Internet because they are given by true doctors, within a context and customization, for free and anonymously. This is the only Colombian startup that is a member of internet.org, the initiative fostered by the founder of Facebook to provide free Internet access to people with low resources. In 2015 they were chosen by the IDB as the startup with the highest social impact in Latin America and the Caribbean. It presently holds an alliance with the ICBF to reduce the pregnant rate among adolescents in Colombia. In 2016 the platform was mentioned by Mark Zuckerberg as an example of success in the Facebook lecture for F8 developers.
- Past year sales: 157 thousand dollars
- Historic sales: 220 thousand dollars
- Annual sales growth: 30%
- Direct jobs generated: 11
- Social Impact: The startup has delivered 21 million health counseling tips for free around the world, with a significant impact on health promotion and prevention
- Total investment received (without counting Wayra’s capital): $0
- Main corporate clients (only for B2B companies): ICBF, Novartis, Roche, AXA, EMI
- Is the company doing business with Telefónica?: No
- Countries with operations: Colombia and Mexico
