Telefónica is launched a new investment vehicle to foster cybersecurity startups.
Telefónica Tech Ventures, which is promoted by Telefónica ElevenPaths cybersecurity company and Telefónica Innovation Ventures (TIV), aims to discover and support the most innovative ideas in cybersecurity. It begins operations with a group of nine invested cybersecurity startups selected from the portfolio of TIV and Wayra, Telefónica’s global open innovation hub. Over the next three years it also intends to invest in up to 15 startups, both early-stage and more mature ones, entering into series A, B and C and devoting the necessary resources to execute follow-ons in the best-performing startups.
The new investments will be geared towards startups with high disruptive potential in areas such as threat intelligence, cloud security, data protection and the application of automations and artificial intelligence in defence of any organisation, regardless of its size and the nature of the asset to be protected (e.g. its business, IT/OT processes, data, people, image or reputation). The focus of the investments will be on the strategic markets for Telefónica (Spain, Brazil, Germany and the United Kingdom) and other significant technological markets such as the United States and Israel, with an investment ticket of up to 6 million euros. Telefónica Tech Ventures will target startups that can complement the ElevenPaths product portfolio, integrate new capabilities into the company and even establish themselves as M&A opportunities.
“Since we created ElevenPaths eight years ago we’ve remained close to the entrepreneurial ecosystem and the hacking community and this new vehicle will enable us to get even closer”, declared Chema Alonso, chief digital consumer officer at Telefónica and current chairman of ElevenPaths. “It will be an opportunity for them not only to have Telefónica as an investor but also to turn us into a customer or even a business partner, thus providing them with the chance to develop their projects around the world”.
