Repsol acquires 100% of Klikin to grow its digital customer base with Waylet app

Repsol has acquired 100% of Klikin, the startup founded by entrepreneur Gustavo García Brusilovsky, which has driven Waylet to emerge as a payment and loyalty app with more than two million users. Repsol and Klikin have worked together for more than three years since the multi-energy company acquired 70% of the startup at the end of 2017, seeking innovative ways to drive its digital businesses, specifically Waylet, through a different relationship and management model. As of today, Repsol has acquired the remaining 30%, which had been held by the founding partners.

This transaction is part of Repsol's digital customer growth strategy, as outlined in the 2021-2025 Strategic Plan, and will consolidate Waylet as the leading mobility payment app in Spain.

Following the acquisition, Repsol will seek a strategic partner to manage the other line that Klikin was promoting – a digital ordering, booking, payment, and loyalty platform for businesses, especially in the food and drink industry, which has experienced a strong growth in 2020 with a stream of important customers. The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically accelerated the digitization process in all sectors, mainly in the food and drink industry, and Klikin's digital ordering platform is a quick solution for businesses to digitalize their operations in a very short time and with no upfront investment.

Waylet is a key asset in the strategy of Repsol's new Client business and in the growth of its digital users. The 2021-2025 Strategic Plan sets out the launch of a Repsol Transversal Loyalty Program with a multi-energy approach, focused on the needs of the company's more than 24 million customers and a target to grow to over eight million 100% digital customers by the end of the period.

The transaction will enable Repsol to manage Klikin in its entirety with the aim of preserving the startup’s essence by maintaining its own organizational and management models, and current headquarters, while promoting more autonomous ways of working, attracting new digital profiles, and always working in pursuit of entrepreneurship. As such, Repsol is moving forward with the transformation of its management model by employing more autonomous formulas and stepping up the implementation of new ways of working.

With the acquisition of Klikin's entire shareholding, Repsol is leading a relationship, interaction, and business promotion model alongside startups that is groundbreaking in the Spanish market in order to swiftly respond to new consumer expectations. At the same time, it will boost the company’s Digitalization Program launched back in 2018, which currently encompasses over 200 initiatives that feature a wide range of technologies (artificial intelligence, data, internet of things, etc.) and involve more than 1,500 professionals with the aim of being a more efficient and sustainable company.

According to Luis Santonja, Repsol's Director of Commercial Business Development and Customer Strategy, "the learning involved for Repsol in developing digital projects with the agility and innovation of a startup has added value to our entire commercial customer strategy and has shown us the way towards new, more agile and entrepreneurial ways of working. There is no better proof of this than Waylet's success as a leading mobility app. It’s been a pleasure for us to share this whole learning experience with Gustavo García Brusilovsky and the rest of the minority shareholders, and thanks to the success of these three years of working together, other lines of collaboration are opening up for us," added Santonja.

For his part, Klikin founder, Gustavo García Brusilovsky, stated that "the launch of Waylet all the way to its current leading position is proof of the great opportunity we have in Spain by combining the resources of our flagship companies and the agile, entrepreneurial innovation of the startups. As such, we gain speed in the Corporation and security in entrepreneurship, a winning combination. I hope it will serve as inspiration, now that Repsol has paved the way, thanks to a management team that has been able to see things differently and take this first step,” he highlighted.

Repsol has a network comprising 3,400 service stations across Spain through which the company offers its customers a wide range of products and services they can purchase using their cell phones. The company's commitment to digitalization allows customers to pay without getting out of the car thanks to Waylet – a mobile payment app created by Repsol in mid-2017 that already has more than 8,000 participating businesses and handles more than 1.1 million transactions per month.

With Waylet, users can pay at all Repsol Group service stations, at El Corte Inglés centers, and at a wide network of businesses. Moreover, the El Corte Inglés shopping card is integrated into Waylet, so users that are also cardholders can pay at Repsol service stations.

The growth in the number of Waylet users has been exponential in the last three years. The app ended 2018 with 927,000 users, exceeded 1.4 million in 2019, and closed 2020 with more than 2 million registered users.

Furthermore, Repsol launched a voluntary carbon offset initiative through Waylet. Every time a customer refuels at a Repsol service station and pays with Waylet, they have the option to voluntarily offset 100% of the CO₂ emissions derived from their fuel consumption through collaboration in forestry projects.