Wayra joins €2.5m ticket for rural Wi-Fi partner

Wayra Spain, Telefónica’s early-stage startup incubator, participated in a €2.5m (£2.3m) Series-A funding round for Spanish startup Galgus.

The round was led by GED Capital via its newly-founded Conexo Ventures fund and Mundi Ventures. Wayra also participated, alongside Global Omnium’s corporate venturing arm GoHub Ventures.

The capital will be used to “scale up” and fund “international expansion”, said Galgus Chief Executive and Co-Founder Jose Gonzales.

Marta Antúnez, Director of Wayra Barcelona, added that “we are looking forward to helping Galgus scale its solution nationwide, thus improving the connection of the populations of rural Spain”.

Though exact funding figures have not been revealed, Wayra Spain’s manifesto stipulates participations “up to €250,000”. It appears that round leader Conexo Ventures pledged €2m, in accordance with plans laid out for its fund in early-October this year, though this has not been confirmed.

Galgus an old friend

Galgus is a Wi-Fi solution provider, marketing Cognitive Hotspot Technology that claims to optimise Wi-Fi resources in real-time, “improving performance by 400%”.

It calls Telefónica a partner, thanks to collaborative work being undertaken in Spain’s rural regions. Both are involved in the European Commission’s (EC) bid to offer public Wi-Fi in under-served areas across the bloc, a programme branded WIFI4EU when launched in 2016 as part of the EC’s Gigabit Society push (Telefónicawatch, #110). According to Galgus, the initiative has so far reached 250,000 people in rural Spanish areas. The programme provides vouchers worth €15,000 to fund the installation of Wi-Fi equipment in public spaces that are not already connected.