Irene Gómez, CEO of Wayra Telefónica, is one of the 100 leading corporate venturing professionals in our 2025 Powerlist.

Wayra has been around for almost 15 years, since it was established as Spain-based telecoms firm Telefónica’s seed-stage venture fund. But the past year is when it has truly come into its own under the leadership of CEO Irene Gómez.
Telefónica reorganised its open innovation structure in early 2024 to bring all its corporate venture capital activities under the Wayra umbrella. It was divided into three divisions including Wayra Ventures, which oversees all the corporate’s startup investments, and Wayra Innovation Services, which bunches together all its open innovation activities. The third division is Wayra Capital, which manages fund-of-fund investments and provides venture capital as a service to other corporates, through both Vivo Ventures and Íope Ventures, an insurance tech fund it manages with sister unit Telefónica Insurance.
The restructuring essentially makes Wayra an all-purpose corporate venture player with hubs in nine countries. It is especially strong in Latin America, where Wayra Brasil manages Vivo Ventures, a €60m fund backed by Telefónica’s local brand.
The end result is a unit that can invest from pre-seed stage all the way to growth-stage businesses, with
pre-money valuations of up to €250m
The end result is a unit that can invest from pre-seed stage all the way to growth-stage businesses, with pre-money valuations of up to €250m, as well as taking strategic limited partner positions in other funds – those currently number 14.
The breadth of investments from the new-look Wayra has evolved accordingly. In addition to its traditional seed-stage activity, it is also one of the latest backers of Perplexity, the developer of an AI-powered answer engine, valued at $9bn in its last round.
As a result, Wayra’s portfolio is one of the largest in venture capital, numbering more than 530 startups, nearly 200 of which work with Telefónica. And that is just its active portfolio – Gómez cites personalised care provider Pelago and Percent, an online marketplace for private credit investments, as two of its more notable exits.
Gómez has come through the ranks at Telefónica, having spent 10 years as a digital product developer for cyber and the corporate’s AI platform, before leading Telefónica’s open innovation network when it was formed in 2020.

The Global Corporate Venturing Powerlist represents the 100 individuals spearheading the future of the corporate venturing industry.
These individuals excel in terms of their venturing approach and structure, number and quality of portfolio companies and in their contributions to the corporate venturing profession.