Published on: 09 June 2022
Leading boat rental and yacht charter marketplace launches fundraise with Seedrs
The UK’s leading boat rental and yacht charter marketplace, Borrow A Boat, has launched a £750k crowdfunding round with London-based investment crowdfunding platform Seedrs. The raise follows accelerating growth and revenues in 2022, expansion into several new countries and three acquisitions in the last 12 months of competitors Helm, Barqo and Beds on Board.
Dubbed the ‘Airbnb of boats’, Borrow A Boat is part of the vanguard of companies digitising the large and maturing global charter market, set to be worth $30bn annually by 2027. One of the pioneers of peer-to-peer charter since 2017, Borrow A Boat is on a mission to make boating more accessible, affordable, flexible, and inclusive for all, to help drive participation, and make chartering a boat simpler.
In 2021, following a year where venture capital investment in the travel industry dropped by 55 percent, Borrow A Boat successfully raised £1.5 million enabling it to expand into the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and acquire key competitors Helm, Barqo and Beds on Board. The business is currently planning to IPO in 2023 – which would be a world first for a boat charter marketplace.
Matt Ovenden, CEO and Founder of Borrow A Boat says: “We are living through a revolution in marketplaces, and believe this should extend to the boating world. Renting a boat should be as easy as booking a hotel, flight or train.
“We, as a business, have made huge strides forward in the last six months – continually smashing our all-time sales records month-on-month towards the end of 2021 and we’re now, in 2022, consistently clearing £1 million a month in revenue.
“This Seedrs fundraise will help fuel our continued growth, with expansion into new countries – Italy, France, Germany and Spain – which we hope to complete by the end of the year. We will also be investing in tech enhancements – substantial UI, UX and automation operator plans in order to keep up with our fast-growing business revenues.
“Borrow A Boat is the modern marketplace solution that the charter industry needs. We hope that this crowdfunding round will see us welcome onboard savvy investors, and boating enthusiasts who are keen to be a part of building the world’s leading boat charter marketplace, whilst making boating more accessible, affordable, flexible and inclusive for all.”
For more information on Borrow A Boat, visit www.borrowaboat.com.
For more information on Borrow A Boat’s Seedrs raise, visit www.seedrs.com/borrow-a-boat2.
