Boatbound operates a peer-to-peer marketplace for U.S. boat owners to rent their boats to pre-screened, qualified renters. Every rental includes up to $3m in insurance protection from trusted insurers, plus towing and support from Boat U.S. The platform supports mobile listing management—owners can create or update listings, add photos, and respond to booking requests via mobile—and renters can hire a captain if they lack boating experience. The service is free to join and has no monthly or membership fees. Co-founded by Aaron Hall and Matt Johnston and based in San Francisco, the company released a redesign of Boatbound.co with over 50 new features to improve listing and renting experiences. Boatbound plans to use new funding to continue expansion and inventory growth, targeting South Florida, New York, Chicago, and Seattle during the 2014 boating season. Boatbound is an online 'pier-to-pier' boat rental marketplace that lets pre-screened captains rent fully insured vessels ranging from motorboats to sailboats and yachts. Owners create listings with photos, amenities, engine and capacity details, location, asking price, and availability; Boatbound takes a percentage cut of bookings and owners receive the rest. At launch the site lists about 50 boats and has almost 1,000 pre-approved listings queued to be added once scalability is ensured. Boatbound has raised over $1 million in early-stage funding led by Benjamin Ling and 500 Startups to support the rollout. To reduce owner risk, the company offers comprehensive insurance covering boats up to $2 million plus an extra $1 million in liability coverage. It requires renters to be licensed seafarers and partnered with BoaterExam to offer free certification, targeting 150,000 people to get licensed in six months to drive demand. Founders Aaron Hall and Matt Johnston, alumni of 500 Startups via their prior company Tailored, focused on product and UX to make the marketplace trustworthy and scalable.

Total raised

$4M

Funding rounds

2

Latest round

Equity

Latest activity

Apr 2014