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APPLY HERE

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Why apply

We are looking for an enthusiastic person to unleash the power of our venture capital ecosystem and become the go to person at Wayra when it comes to which investors shall we talk to for our corporate innovation challenges or our portfolio companies fund raising rounds. This will offer the opportunity to grow an important network of contacts in this space and identify multi-million-pound opportunities for start-ups inside the corporate space.

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About Wayra

Wayra is the world’s largest Open Innovation Hub, run by entrepreneurs, founded 11 years ago and with a presence in different countries following Telefónica's footprint.
We identify corporate problems that start-ups solve best. We scout the right start-ups, onboard them, run PoCs and invest to gain strategic advantages for the corporate.

At Wayra UK, we work with different business units of Virgin Media O2, Telefonica Global and other corporate partners to drive new revenue streams and innovation for both corporates and venture-backed companies.

We are a balance sheet investor, not a fund. We invest 6-8 tickets of up to €350kper year in start-ups with a business case or successful Proof of Concept with our corporate partners. Our start-up profile ranges between pre-series A and even series C.

In the last 11 years of our operations, we have 120+ start-ups working with Telefonica businesses and have invested in more than 800 companies globally.

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About the role

One of our strategic stakeholders is venture capital funds. We work closely with them in various ways, from collecting and exchanging deal flow to exchanging market insights that can support the corporate strategies of Telefonica and our partners. We also support VCs with introductions between themselves and our corporate executives, and we also organise community events.

We are looking for a professional that will be responsible for all the above and for engaging with our 500+ network of investors developed over the years, aiming to create a vibrant ecosystem based on value exchange. Some aspects of the responsibilities are subject to change depending on the yearly strategic objectives of Wayra and its corporate partners.

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What you will be doing

·       Work closely with the Head of Scouting and Venture Capital Ecosystem to deliver on the team objectives as well as with other Wayra teams that need venture capital resources, insights, and contacts.

·       Work with Wayra’s Head of Portfolio on supporting Wayra start-ups with their fundraising process.

·       Support our scouting sprints with deal flow generated from venture capital funds that have a similar investment thesis as the scouting thesis we design for each sprint. You will be responsible also for identifying which would be the right funds to be approached. This will complement the desk scouting deal flow done by our scouting manager.

·       Generate and manage the inbound deal flow that we get from other VCs, corporates, Wayra programmes and team members. Run the Inbound Committee that reviews the inbound deal flow.

·       Work closely with Wayra’s Head of Portfolio to support our fundraising in residence programme by identifying and approaching the right investors for our portfolio companies when they are ready to fundraise.

·       Manage the content for the investor’s newsletter in collaboration with Wayra’s marketing team.

·       Always be out there in the ecosystem, meeting new investors, maintaining the relationship with our top investors, participating at events, or contributing to events as a speaker or panellist.      

·       Be the owner of our investor network, understand which funds are relevant for which needs, be up to date when investors move from one fund to another, manage our CRM, approach new funds when they launch and congratulate fellow funds when they do a new deal, etc.

·       Work closely with our marketing team to design and deliver investor events and other Wayra related events where investors will be needed.

Requirements

·       Ability to understand different stakeholder needs such as investors, start-ups and corporates to create mutual value between them.

·       Ability to run high-level due diligence of a start-up, cut through pitches to capture what their value proposition is and present in a persuasive way to make it valuable to our stakeholders.

·       Understanding how enterprise and corporate commercial deals work is a plus. You will be required to navigate different corporate layers to find the right sponsor for the companies coming through the inbound deal flow.

·       Analytical thinking, able to quickly understand a scouting brief, challenge it and present it in a summarized way to other stakeholders, particularly investors.

·       Understand how different technologies work, how integrations work, technology trends and their impact for different use cases of our corporate partners.

·       Strong project management skills, ability to manage different workstreams at the same time, use CRM to manage conversations and contacts and AirTable to manage dealflow.

·       Strategic thinking to design and deliver an engagement strategy for fostering the relationship with the investment community.

·       Ability to understand different venture market trends and present them back to the corporate to contribute towards their strategy work.

·       Presentation skills are a must, you will have to present companies to corporate sponsors, to investors, present Wayra or innovation projects to investors and start-ups.

·       Collaboration skills to work with different stakeholders and teams.

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Ideal profile

·       Dynamic and enthusiastic person, enjoys being out in the ecosystem, networking with people, and making and developing meaningful relations.

·       Familiar and passionate about the venture market, being up to date with the latest news: which start-ups have raised, what new VC funds have been launched, and have a good understanding of how different types of venture funds operate.

·       Excellent stakeholder management and collaboration skills, able to work with senior stakeholders from internal business units and investors stakeholders.

·       Previous role in a venture capital fund or venture-based organisation is a plus.

·       Ability to multitask, attention to detail without forgetting the big picture view.

·       Pro-active, self-managed and organised.

·       People-oriented, collaborative, creative, supportive and with a great sense of humour.

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Technical knowledge 

·       Project management skills, having used project management tools before. Asana experience is a plus.

·       Proficient or have used CRM systems successfully in the past.

·       Basic Knowledge Data Management using AirTable, Pitchbook, Crunchbase or different CSV based tools.

·       Research Skills.

·       Familiar with the technicalities on how venture capital funds or fundraising process work.

Professional experience 

·       Open Innovation roles in other corporates or agencies.

·       Previous Venture Capital Roles such as associate, principal, and venture partner.

·       Ecosystem roles in various start-up focused organisations.

Educational background

·       University degree in business or technical specialisation or equivalent.

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Languages 

·       Proficient in English with both speaking and writing.

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What we offer

·       Competitive salary package including performance bonuses.

·       25 days holiday + bank holidays.

·       3 days a week in the office, dynamic work environment with a multi-cultural and diverse team, morning running club, office fruit days and informal socials.

·       Our office space includes our own floor innovation hub, shared with our portfolio companies, investors in residence, other partners and community members. Our building has a dedicated gym, coffee shop, secured bike storage room, and rooftop with Thames River views over Big Ben at only 3 min away from Vauxhall station.

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