Telefónica invests in an innovation platform to improve the digital experience

The Spanish operator, through the Open Future program, will allocate up to 200 million dollars, fruit of the strategic collaboration agreement with Coral Group, to create a platform for innovation and development of solutions that contribute to improving the digital experience of its clients in Europe and Latin America.

This strategic agreement between Telefónica y Coral Group aims to create an investment platform in communications of the latter (CIP) for detection, creation and offer of innovative products and solutions that contribute to improving the digital experience of its clients in Europe and Latin America, under the program Open Future from the operator.

The platform has a budget item of 200 million dollars (something more than 175 million euros), by which Telefónica Open Future becomes one of the key actors in the creation of 'innovation factories' for the promotion of new technologies that benefit 320 millions of customers the company.

Telefónica and Coral plan to extend the reach of CIP with the entry of up to four other communications services companies from around the world that share the same interest in innovation, which would mean having an investment of up to 1.000 million dollars to innovate in technologies and services that would reach nearly 2.000 millions of users.

According to this agreement, The operator will combine the work of the CIP with that of Telefónica I+D+i with the aim of optimizing the company's future capital investments (more than 7.500 millions of dollars in 2014) and to transform it into a key player in growth areas such as next-generation networks, big data and machine learning technology, and the Internet of things (Internet of Things – IoT).

The investment in CIP complements other open innovation initiatives that Telefónica Open Future integrates, in support of the global community of technological entrepreneurship and startups, on a global online acceleration platform and different crowdworking spaces; Wayra academies; the Amérigo and Telefónica Ventures Funds, among others, as well as through alliances with different institutions in countries where the company operates. With presence in seventeen countries, The different initiatives that make up Open Future have invested in more than 550 companies and created more than 5.000 new jobs in the digital sector.