CaixaBank + Santander + Telefonica created a joint venture fintech with 27M EUR — then killed it in 2016 because it threatened their core businesses. Revenue in 2014: 2444 EUR.
Evaluating only Yaap’s profile at its peak — without knowing the outcome — the model ranked Unit economics as the #1 likely cause. Documented cause: Acquisition gone wrong.
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Documented cause
Yaap was a P2P payments and loyalty app funded equally by CaixaBank, Santander, and Telefonica (9M EUR each). Its P2P payment feature threatened the core business of its own shareholders. Revenue in 2014: 2,444 EUR. Losses in 2014: 8M EUR. Downloaded 150,000 times but never scaled. Liquidated in June 2016 — shareholders preferred to kill it and pursue individual strategies rather than allow it to cannibalize their revenues.
Lesson
“Corporate joint ventures in competitive fintech have a structural conflict of interest: the shareholders who fund the JV are also its most threatened incumbents. When the product starts working, they kill it rather than let it cannibalize their revenues. Yaap was a preview of Bizum — which CaixaBank and Santander then built themselves.”