A Baltimore company behind a service billed as the "Hotels.com for boaters" raised $5 million late last month to add new dimensions to its multipronged business.
CEO Jennifer LeRoux said the company plans to use the funding to develop a new marina management software that will help business owners track reservations and other parts of their business. The new software would add to the two other products under the Marinalife umbrella: Snag-A-Slip, a Hotels.com-style site that lets boaters book time at docks, and the Marinalife magazine. LeRoux emphasized that much of the boating industry has failed to keep up with modern technology, giving the startup a strong niche in the market.
"Most marinas were making reservations on pen and paper or on a whiteboard until a few years ago," LeRoux said.
The round is led by Nashville private equity firm Claritas Capital. The Propel Baltimore Fund, Abell Foundation, the Maryland Technology Development Corp. and the University System of Maryland Momentum Fund also participated in the round. Long-time Baltimore Business Journal readers might remember that Marinalife was acquired by a different boating tech company in 2017. The company that acquired Marinalife, Snap-A-Slip, rebranded in 2021 as Marinalife.
LeRoux believes the different aspects of Marinalife are necessary for the continued survival of the company. For example, she noted the Snag-A-Slip reservation service needs to be backed up by strong business-to-business marina management software to be an effective tool.
“For Snag-A-Slip, to be successful as a reservation engine, you have to have a view into the [marina] inventory in real-time or else it's not a very good customer experience,” LeRoux said. “If you went to make a reservation and you don't know for two days whether it's successful, that's not a very good customer experience.”
The boating industry saw massive growth during the Covid-19 pandemic. Over 800,000 first-time boat buyers entered the market in 2021 and 2020, according to the National Marine Manufacturers Association. Many of these buyers are younger than typical boat owners LeRoux said, so they are more accustomed to using technology. Another Maryland startup, AeroVanti is also trying to court boaters through a luxury chartered yacht club.
“It's just a great time for us to really enter a market that had a lack of technology and offer a competitive solution,” LeRoux said.
LeRoux is no stranger to working with growing technology companies. She was the first chief finance financial officer at Baltimore cybersecurity firm ZeroFox and helped the company raise its first few venture rounds. The Baltimore security company went public last year.
