Gollum, one of the bearers of the One Ring in The Lord of the Rings, who referred to it as “my treasure,” might go crazy if he knew that the startup Rikki has managed to integrate the bank card into a ring. Behind this achievement are two engineers: Elena Yorda and Elena Fuenmayor. “The project dates back to about eight years ago, when we set up a company in Mexico that made bracelets for hotels and other closed vacation resort-type spaces, but it didn't end up working,” Yorda recalls.
Despite this initial failure, the two entrepreneurs continued fighting for their business project and developed a bracelet linked to the credit card. It didn't work either "because it was uncomfortable to pay with your arm and it was difficult to find a design that the vast majority of people liked," explains the entrepreneur. This time they had gotten what, but not how. Success came when they changed the bracelet for a ring. It was then that Yorda and Fuenmayor formed Rikki, in March 2023.
They sell about a thousand rings a month through the company's website and are in talks with large chain stores that have asked them to sell the item. At the moment, Spain is its main market, but the company has a clear international vocation. This summer, the founders want to enter other markets in the European Union and are reaching agreements with card companies in Latin America, from where they are receiving many requests.
Based in a coworking in Barcelona and a team made up of external collaborators, Rikki has involved an initial investment of 200,000 euros, contributed by the partners. The forecast for 2024 is to end the year with a turnover of more than 100,000 euros.
The creators of Rikki aim to turn their ring into a tool capable of opening the door of the house or office, acting as a GPS locator that allows them to find lost people, or storing information about allergies or blood types. Elena Yorda and Elena Fuenmayor are already working to be able to offer some of these new functionalities and do not rule out raising capital to be able to move forward with them when the time comes.
