Telefónica SA

05/07/2021 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 05/07/2021 03:39

Wayra launches a call for Israeli entrepreneurs to promote a technology developed by Telefónica Tech

  • The 'Rosetta Venture Challenge' is launched in collaboration with key stakeholders in the Israeli entrepreneurial ecosystem, such as the Azrieli College of Engineering Jerusalem and Start-Up Nation Central, one of Israel's leading organisations in the promotion of innovation.
  • Participants will have to develop use business cases based on the Rosetta technology, which is able to create multiple use cases involving messaging services.
  • The winning projects will be jointly incubated by the promoters of the challenge, enjoy their own funding and have the chance to flourish into start-ups.

Madrid, May 7th 2021.- Wayra, Telefónica's initiative to support the entrepreneur ecosystem part of its open innovation programme, has launched a call for applications aimed at Israeli university students and entrepreneurs to develop business cases based on Rosetta, a Telefónica Tech technology.

The 'Rosetta Venture Challenge' is launched together with several major stakeholders in the Israeli entrepreneurial ecosystem, such as the Azrieli College of Engineering Jerusalem, through its AtoBe Entrepreneur's Center, Start-Up Nation Central, a leading independent organisation promoting innovation in Israel and MadeinJLM, Jerusalem's startup and tech community. Also participating is Fresh Fund, which focuses on investments in start-ups coming out of the academic sector.

Open call for applications until 24th May, finalists will go into a training program, and the winners be incubated, with the support of the challenge partners. They will enjoy their own funding and will have the opportunity to develop their start-ups.

Rosetta, a platform for messaging platforms

Rosetta is a technology developed by a cybersecurity team at Telefónica Tech that makes it possible to create different use cases easily, integrating multiple messaging services, such as traditional SMS, WhatsApp or Telegram, into one single platform. This avoids having to create code for each and establishes direct conversations with a larger number of users from a single technology platform.

It also allows all types of organisations to create their own brand identity, decide the type of content to share, the integration of services such as bots or digital signatures in conversations, or the application of AI to offer users more personalised services.

This is the same technology used by Deeder, a Spanish start-up promoted by Wayra Builder, which permits the secure signing of all types of legally valid contracts via WhatsApp or SMS.

Supporting quotes:

'This initiative will allow us to further our ties with one of the main centres of entrepreneurship in the world-Israel-and especially what is emerging from the university environment, well-known internationally for its technological and innovative talent.'

Susana Jurado, head of Telefónica's open innovation initiative aimed at the academic sector.

'Azrieli College of Engineering is very proud to collaborate with Telefónica and our partners promoting innovation and entrepreneurship initiatives for the Rosetta Venture Challenge. One of our main value is sharing knowledge, connecting people with different backgrounds and using diversity as an important element to innovate. Thus, we aspire to be an ambassador of engineering, technology and entrepreneurship from Jerusalem.'

Prof. Rosa Azhari, President of Azrieli College of Engineering.

'Start-Up Nation Central is proud to be a partner in launching this competition together with the Jerusalem hi-tech ecosystem and a global company such as Telefónica. We are happy to see Telefónica utilize the 'out-of-the-box thinking' of young Israeli tech entrepreneurs. This collaboration between industry, investors and academia is part of Start-Up Nation Central's vision of how Israeli innovation can help tackle global challenges.'

Sam Rush Soclof, Jerusalem Ecosystem Manager of Start-Up Nation Central.

'As a pre-seed venture fund, fresh.fund is excited to be a part of this initiative and look forward to seeing the fresh ideas and concepts Israeli entrepreneurs and innovators will craft based on Telefónica's Rosetta technology. We hope this will pave the path to more fruitful collaborations between the Israeli entrepreneurial ecosystem and Telefónica.'

Oded Barel-Sabag, Ecosystem Partnership @ fresh.fund

About Wayra

Wayra is the entrepreneurship initiative part of Telefónica's Open Innovation programme, the most global, technological and connected in the world. It has seven Wayra Hubs, spaces in nine countries in Latin America and Europe through which it invests in and supports startups; Wayra X, a digital hub to invest in 100% digital startups; Wayra Builder, a corporate venture builder to create, together with other investors, innovative startups born from Telefónica's internal technology projects; and Wayra Next Trend, a window to digital innovation on innovative trends and applications. In addition, through the Wayra Activation Programme, it offers entrepreneurs exclusive and free access to new technologies through Telefónica's own platforms.  

More than 500 of the startups invested are part of Telefónica's Open Innovation programme and more than 130 are doing business with the company.