When we first caught wind of Dockwa—a startup aiming to bring the on-demand economy to boaters—mid-January, we were psyched: But that was when Boston was still buried under a barrage of snow. Alas, summer is fast approaching, the temperatures are rising, and finally, Dockwa will be officially launching its boating app May 22 in Nantucket, at the Figawi 2015 Race Weekend.
To boot, the company is announcing it raised $1.1 million in seed funding from HubSpot CEO Brian Halligan and CMO Mike Volpe, David Skok of Matrix Partners, and Driftt cofounder Elias Torres (also an ex-HubSpotter), as well as several other private investors. This new round, which brings the total financing Dockwa has raised to $1.4 million, will allow the Newport-based startup to expand into new markets as well as grow the team.
“With over seventy marinas in the major ports of New England, Dockwa is fast becoming the OpenTable for the marine industry, demonstrating an incredible customer experience, valued inventory, and convenience,” said founder and CEO Mike Melillo, in a news release.
Before founding Dockwa, Melillo worked at a life science tech company. This April, HubSpot vets Matt Fradette (former Senior Sales Manager) and John Nagro (former Director of Engineering) joined the team full time. In the past month, Dockwa has made several other hires across the engineering team, sales team, and financial operations.
Dockwa offers benefits for both boaters and marinas. Boaters are able to use the app to conveniently find, reserve and pay for docks and moorings. Meanwhile, marinas benefit from free advertising, better inventory management and an easy method for collecting payment. They also are able to pull customers’ information into their online database, which helps them to optimize operations and boost traffic. As of now, Dockwa is launching exclusively in the New England market, but the company will eventually be expanding to other markets throughout the U.S—most likely the Carolinas and Florida.
Image of Figawi 2014 in Nantucket courtesy of Massachusetts Office of Travel & Tourism/Flickr (Creative Commons).
Screenshot via Dockwa.
