Ireland 2012

The winners were chosen from a shortlist of 20 projects drawn up from the record-breaking 335 applications received following an initial call for entries.

The nine Irish projects that will receive an investment of EUR50,000, and access to the new state-of-the-art Wayra Academy workspace in 02's headquarters in Dublin's docklands, are:

Popdeem, a social commerce platform that connects brands to student communities through the power of social networks.

BragBet, a company aiming to become the global leader in social gambling by mirroring online the way that males interact.

SuperQuest, a game that helps you discover your superpower, and shows you how to use it to live a better life.

Glass Robot Studio, a company developing a mobile social-gaming platform driven by social networking and user-generated content for iphone, Android, and Windows Phone.

ThoughtBox, an educational software provider delivering learning experiences through games.

OptiWifi, which delivers next-gen Wi-Fi monitoring and self-optimising solutions to Wi-Fi service providers, Mobile Carriers and Wi-Fi manufacturers

Whitd, who make software that allows you to free up time for working and reduces time managing email.

PayMins, who produce software that enables anyone to sell digital media direct to fans using mobile payments.

Woop.ie, a content-first digital publishing platform that allows users to create beautiful publications that look great on any device.

The Wayra Academy Director, Karl Aherne, says some of the businesses that have been selected have the potential to become global technology players.

"We have selected some great businesses with global potential. Wayra will now work to fast-track these start-ups and give them access to Telefonica's global market, and we are loosing forward to the projects moving into the Academy and working here over the months ahead," he said.

The goal of the Wayra network is to nurture the best technology ideas and talent around the world, and develop future 'Silicon Valleys' in the countries where Telefonica is present, like Ireland.

Telefonica receives first-refusal rights to offer products and services developed by successful projects to its 300m global customers, though it does not require the entrepreneurs to give it exclusivity.

Brian MacNiece, from Kotinos Partners, speaking to start-ups in Telefonica's global accelerator programme, Wayra.