Boat Planet Inc., which has developed a platform that connects boat owners with service providers, plans to expand after raising $1.2 million in seed funding.
The St. Louis-based startup this month closed its funding round, which was led by Tulsa, Oklahoma-based 46 Venture Capital. St. Louis-based Ascend Venture Capital and Quad 2 Capital were also investors in the deal.
Boat Planet, founded in 2018, has developed an online app designed to connect boat owners with service providers that maintain and repair boats. It says its platform includes more than 35,000 service providers and has had 48,000 job requests from boat owners in the past year. The average job completed through Boat Planet is about $1,500, said co-founder Michael Kiel. Boat Planet is headquartered at 4220 Duncan Ave. in the Cortex innovation district.
Kiel, who founded Boat Planet with Chris Eirven, said he launched the company based on his own experience owning a boat. As a new boat owner, Kiel said he needed to transport his boat from Table Rock Lake in Southwest Missouri to the Lake of the Ozarks and “immediately discovered all the problems” in servicing a boat. He said he struggled to find a service provider, and when he did, his boat was damaged in transport to the Lake of the Ozarks. That led him to create a Facebook page for boat owners at the Lake of the Ozarks, spurring the creation of Boat Planet.
Boat Planet’s seed funding comes as it undergoes a shift in its operating model. The startup has had a subscription model that included sending business leads to its users. It has transitioned to a new model in which it takes a percentage cut from repair jobs facilitated through its platform. The shift involves boat owners entering information about their job request, which is sent to multiple service providers who bid on the project. The boat owner pays for the job through Boat Planet’s platform and service providers are paid the same day the job is completed, Kiel said. It is free for boat owners to use Boat Planet.
Boat Planet had revenue of $500,000 in 2023 and expects its new business model to substantially increase that figure, Kiel said. It’s aiming for revenue of $2 million in 2024. That comes as Boat Planet wants this year to grow the pool of service providers using its site from 35,000 to more than 50,000. The startup wants to facilitate 10,000 jobs on its platform this year.
Kiel said that Boat Planet, as part of its new business model, plans to launch a new version of its platform in April and will also debut a mobile app for the first time. Kiel said he believes Boat Planet’s new revenue model will be more attractive to boat service providers because they won’t have to pay a monthly fee while still generating revenue from jobs sourced through the startup.
“We’re a direct contributor to their revenue,” he said.
Boat Planet has six employees and has used its funding to add a chief technology officer, head of product and full-stack developer. It plans to expand by adding a customer success team in the coming months, Kiel said.
