Member Article

Wayra opens new London hub but sets sights on the North

Accelerator network Wayra UK have officially unveiled their new London base at Piccadilly Circus in a ceremony attended by the Minister of State for Digital and Culture, MP Matt Hancock.

The new 9,000 sq ft space is set to house participants in the accelerator network’s range of programmes, the applications for which are open now, with connectivity services, mentoring and training all available on-site.

As part of the group’s wider vision, the new Air Street facility will also act as a central hub for Telefonica’s Open Future programme, which looks beyond the capital with a vision to support startups and entrepreneurs across the country.

Furthering this vision, Wayra is also set to open a pair of enterprise hubs in Oldham and Birmingham as it looks to support and scale UK startups while giving them access to its global network of entrepreneurship initiatives.

Both Open Future_ North, which is supported by Oldham Council, and Open Future_ Midlands scheme based out of the Serendip Smart City Incubator, will help to ‘democratise’ access to startup support and help more early-stage businesses outside of London to scale.

Touching upon the organisation’s UK-wide aspirations, Gary Stewart, Director at Wayra UK and Telefonica Open Future_, said: “We believe that innovation can come from anywhere. As such, our mission at Wayra UK is to democratise entrepreneurship, not just in London but throughout the UK.

“Our hubs will work alongside local and regional partners to reinvigorate entrepreneurial ecosystems, energise local economies and democratise entrepreneurship.”

In what has been a big week for Wayra, its new London base and two regional hubs are also to be joined by a new GCHQ cybersecurity accelerator partnership based out of Cheltenham with another hub set to open in London in 2017.

Mr Hancock commented that the new Piccadilly facility, along with Wayra’s other initiatives will help spark ‘even more creativity’ in the UK’s digital economy.

He added: “By supporting UK start-ups to scale up we can boost an industry which contributed more than £118 billion to the British economy last year and develop the world-leading businesses of tomorrow.

“This is happening right across the country - last week we announced the development of a new cyber accelerator in Cheltenham and Wayra is also working on new start-up hubs in Birmingham and Manchester.”