Wayra (Telefónica) and 5G Barcelona (MWCapital) announce the winning startups of the ‘5G ScaleUp Program’: Keybotics, AON Chip, eAgora and Expacia XR

• The four startups selected will participate in a 17-week acceleration program and have access to training with Wayra and 5G Barcelona mentors.
• The ‘5G ScaleUp Program’ is an initiative promoted by Wayra and 5G Barcelona, a program from Mobile World Capital Barcelona that works to position Barcelona as an innovative environment with 5G technology.

23 March, 2023

Keybotics, AON Chip, eAgora and Expacia XR were the four startups selected to participate in the third edition of the ‘5G ScaleUp Program’, an initiative promoted by Wayra, Telefónica’s open innovation hub and 5G Barcelona, a program of Mobile World Capital Barcelona whose aim is to position Barcelona as an innovative and open environment for the validation and adoption of 5G technologies and applications.

The chosen projects will participate in this program for four months with the aim of promoting entrepreneurship in the field of 5G technology. During this period, the entrepreneurs will receive virtual training with mentors from Wayra and 5G Barcelona in areas such as finance, sales, marketing, investment, branding, sales and pitching, as well as support, access to investors, networking spaces and visibility within the 5G ecosystem.

The startups selected for the third edition of the ‘5G ScaleUp Program’ are: 

• Keybotics: manufactures a truly autonomous four-legged robot for industrial inspections with DARPA Robotics Challenge first-prize winning technology.
• AON Chip: offers IOT solutions using artificial intelligence to control and sensor environmental variables in order to combat climate change and generate a circular economy. It also offers control and sensing solutions for verticals such as Smart Cities, Smart Agriculture and Smart Minery. If it needs control over water, electricity, water quality or air quality, it uses the most advanced IOT (internet of the things) technologies. 
• eAgora: is a social impact startup, the first SuperApp of the Networked Administration, a new model of Co-Governance and Smart Communication. Our mission is to be the global platform that facilitates a new democratic culture, based on participatory governance and offers citizens the ‘last mile’ of Smart Cities.
• Expacia XR: is a startup born in Reus that develops Extended Reality (XR) solutions for companies, implementing VR and AR in their processes, to make them more efficient, competitive and prepared for the digital universe.

Among the criteria used to select the projects, the market potential and scalability of the solution were taken into account. These premises were also used last year when the startups that participated in the first edition of the program were Flash Park, Ebre Drone, Hop Ubiquitous and Liip.

“We are aware of the benefits and the great opportunities for technological development that 5G technology brings. Therefore, we offer the winning startups our laboratory The Thinx 5G so that, together, we can contribute to the consolidation of the 5G entrepreneurial ecosystem,” explains Eduard Martín, director of Intelligent Connectivity at Mobile World Capital Barcelona and CEO of 5G Barcelona.

“In Wayra we believe that the 5G Scale Up Program will allow all the winning startups to evolve and grow faster with the best mentors and key partners in entrepreneurship that will help entrepreneurs scale more effectively,” says Marta Antúnez, director of Wayra Barcelona.

About Wayra‍

Wayra is Telefónica’s Open Innovation program, the most global, technological and connected hub of its sort in the world. Seven Wayra Hubs invest and support startups in ten countries throughout Latin America and Europe; Wayra X, a hub for 100% digital startups investment; Wayra Builder, a corporate venture builder for the co-creation of innovative startups born from Telefónica’s technology projects with other investors; and Wayra Next Trend, which fosters innovation on trends and innovative applications. In addition, the Wayra Activation Programme offers entrepreneurs exclusive and free access to new technologies through Telefónica’s own platforms. More than 500 startups that took part in Telefónica’s open Innovation program are still active and more than 130 are currently conducting business with the company.

More information is available at www.wayra.com

About 5G Barcelona‍

5G Barcelona is a public-private partnership that is working to position Barcelona and  Catalonia as an open, innovative environment for the validation and adoption of 5G technologies and applications in real-life.

The initiative will create synergies within the 5G ecosystem and offer an experimental infrastructure for testing, creating prototypes and implementing new digital solutions.

5G Barcelona is intended to stimulate and consolidate already-existing innovation in Barcelona and Catalonia, to help attract foreign investment, boost new technology companies and generate a complete industry based on 5G technology.

The initiative is promoted by the Regional Government of Catalonia, Barcelona City Hall,  Mobile World Capital Barcelona, i2CAT, CTTC, Atos and the UPC.