By Steven Scheer

JERUSALEM, (Reuters) – Spain’s Telefonica (NYSE :), Europe’s third largest telecoms firm, plans to invest more in Israel’s high tech sector, including in eHealth and other consumer-facing businesses, a top official stated.

Luisa Rubio is the head of Telefonica’s innovation arm WayraX. She has made an investment in Israel: Upword. Upword uses artificial intelligence (AI), which creates faster and more efficient summaries using notes.

WayraX is investing small amounts in early stage funding and has been told that it will be looking at two other Israeli startups. She expects a decision in the next weeks.

Rubio stated, “We have already completed the first one. We hope that at the end the year we’ll have four to five additional companies coming from Israel,” Rubio told Reuters in an interview after his visit last week. Israel is one of our most valuable markets when it comes to executing new investment deals.

WayraX, which began in 2020, has invested in 12 companies and plans to increase its stake to 20 companies by 2022. Wayra has been investing in companies for a decade. Telfonica Ventures invests in mature companies at growth stage.

WayraX’s investments in early stage are limited to 250,000 euro ($263,500.00).

Rubio stated that the value Rubio brings to the table “is not financial. It’s being an strategic partner to those entrepreneurs expand operations all across our footprint – to do business with Telefonica in future.”

Telefonica’s focus is on the internet and allows patients to get connected to their doctors via online. However, Rubio mentioned other consumer activities such like grocery shopping.

Rubio explained, “We understand we need to act quickly on investment decisions because I have never witnessed an ecosystem so dynamic as Israel.”

She pointed out that Wayra also wanted to increase investments in Miami to create a bridge between Europe and Latin America.

($1 = 0.9488 euros)