María Azofra and Lucía Clifford are the Co-founders of Yakk App, a plataform dedicated to the rental of objects, whose objective is to transform the current consumption philosophy based on buy-use-throw away to rent-use-reuse so that anyone can do anything they can imagine. María and Lucía are two entrepreneurs, athletes, soccer players to be more exact, that fate had predestined for them to meet.
María studied Marketing and Commercial Management and Lucía Computer Engineering with a specialization in Artificial Intelligence. They met while playing soccer, they hit it off, they began to share experiences, and in the end, they decided to start a business. This is how María tells us how they met: “We met 13 years ago playing football, in our Club at that time, Pozuelo de Alarcón”. Lucia details these beginnings: “Our friendship arose while we were at Pozuelo, but then I went to England, and we met again because I wanted to play at Pozuelo again. At the same time, we began to work in the same office, and sharing moments we began to talk about projects until we decided to undertake”.
Thus, 2021 arrives, and after several years of experience in large companies, the two entrepreneurs decided to create Yakk, a platform that allows you to rent any object that companies and individuals need for a month. For those of you who are reading us and like me, do not know what Yakk is, tell you that it is the name of an animal that lives in the Himalayas and that has been traditionally used to carry objects. Something that fits with his idea of setting up a platform with a clear objective: to transform the current consumer philosophy based on buy-use-throw away to rent-use-reuse so that anyone can do anything they can imagine.
How this idea was born and the business model tells us Maria: “We were on a trip to the Philippines and wanted to rent a Go-Pro camera, which was impossible for us. We investigated to see if there was any website where we could rent anything or object and the truth is that we did not find it. It was 2020 and in the midst of a pandemic we already decided to try and see if there was this real need.” And the truth is yes: “As we saw that there was no specialized platform for renting objects and things like that, we decided to create Yakk with the aim of being the largest rental platform worldwide, not just in Spain. We launched in 2021, and after a year we are very happy and we believe that we are going to go very far” adds satisfied Lucia Clifford about.
The platform already offers more than 15,000 objects that belong to both companies and individuals and that can be rented for a variable period of time. The most rented are audiovisual and sports equipment for the short term and computer equipment in the flexing option or long-term rental with option to buy.
“The key to Yakk, what we want, is that there is a payment for use of any type of product” it states Lucia Clifford, which explains one of the main keys of the platform. Or rather a trend: “The concept of buying is going to go less. We see it on platforms like Spotify or Netflix. If someone wants to use a camera for a single day, they should have the option to pay only for that time they have been using it” comments the current CTO of Yakk.
Yakk got its first injection of capital last fall, which is allowing it to grow tremendously. “We closed our first round of financing last September of €250,000, and as a result of that we have had exponential growth these months. At a minimum, right now we are growing by 30%” Lucia Clifford comments on this. “Now we are looking for our second round of financing to, among other objectives, make the leap to the United States. We are looking for between 1.5 million and 2 million to reach the largest possible volume of people” Maria expands for her part.
starting and living
Two entrepreneurs, but at the same time so young, make María and Lucía two speakers who at the same time can be an example for other women. Asked about what advice they could give to other women, they tell us: “Well, I would tell them to jump into the pool. It is positive to want to eat the world. And if you want to contact us through Linkedin, we are always happy to help” tells us Maria. Lucía for her part tells us that the advice she would give to other women is to believe it. “My advice is that they should be ambitious, believe it. In general, the woman when undertaking is more realistic than the man. You have to do the opposite, learn from great leaders who have great ambition. In addition, it is important to talk to people in the environment, seek help and tools to get started”.
María and Lucía, as we said at the beginning, are great soccer fans., and continue with their passion more than 10 years after meeting. Despite already having long working hours, they continue to find time to play. Because work is just as important as disconnection: “We continue to combine football well today. We continue playing, we are federated, because there has to be time for everything. The head needs a rest.” says Maria. Lucía for her part comments the same: “We work 12 hours a day during the week, but when the weekend comes we rest our minds, not only us but the whole team, because it is important to keep our heads fresh”.
