Atresmedia has announced the purchase of the surprise travel and gift company Waynabox, an operation with which they hope to overcome “before the end of the year” the barrier of 10 million euros in turnover, “maintain exponential growth in Spain and create a company with a clear international reach”. Through this operation, Atresmedia will control the Catalan startup, in which it had, since 2015, a stake through the ‘media for equity’ investment model.
In exchange, Waynabox, which will keep Jordi Agustí as CEO and the co-founder Pau Sendra as director of strategy and growth, “will have access to the necessary resources to consolidate its leadership and promote an ambitious internationalization plan”, they say from the media corporation . Waynabox, which created surprise trips in 2015, has trips to more than 80 territories in Europe and North Africa. The company is confident that this alliance will allow them to continue growing in other European countries where they are present and where they consider they have enormous potential.
At present, and after the pandemic years, Waynabox has recovered the record numbers of 2019 and is growing strongly outside of Spain. In total, more than 150,000 people from Spain, France, Italy, Portugal and the United Kingdom have already enjoyed the surprise trips offered by Waynabox which, since 2020, also organize getaways and car routes through Spain.
Atresmedia began operating in the venture capital business in 2014, under the modality known as ‘media for equity’ (advertising in exchange for shares). Since then, it has invested more than 80 million euros in more than 30 startups, such as Wallapop, Promofarma, Marmota, Bipi, Emagister and Glovo, all of them sold, multiplying the investment by 3.5 times.
Over time, the business model has evolved, also encompassing cash investments, as in the case of Fever (the Spanish ‘unicorn’ of which Atresmedia is the main shareholder) and ‘corporate venture building’ initiatives (business diversification of large companies). In the case of Waynabox, it has gone a step further by acquiring an investee for the first time, as both companies announced this Thursday.
Its beginnings date back to 2014
Waynabox is a young startup specialized in organizing surprise trips. The company born in Barcelona and accelerated in Valencia, achieved a turnover of 5 million euros in 2019, with increases in travelers close to 20% each year. It is a young company, made up of young employees. Its founders are three engineers (Pau Sendra, Ferrán Blanché and Dani Jiménez) who came up with the idea of creating this particular way of traveling during an Interrail.
This is how Wayna was born, in 2014, one of the winning companies of the second edition of Lanzadera. This initiative by Juan Roig, with 100% private capital, was born to support entrepreneurial leaders to develop and value innovative projects. In 2015, it was renamed Waynabox and this is how it was presented at the Mobile World Congress 2015.
