The Venture Codex

Participated · Equity · Jan 2016

BoatBureau is an online marketplace founded in 2012 that aggregates global boat rental listings into a single platform. It maintains a catalog of around 17,000 vessels and works exclusively with professional fleets. The startup serves a diversified customer base across more than 80 countries, with Italy the largest market; roughly 70% of bookings come from Europe and 30% from the Americas. The platform has nearly doubled its revenue each year and expected to close the year with revenue near €5 million, representing roughly 80% growth. BoatBureau plans to use new funding to finance growth, invest in marketing and technology, and strengthen its team. The four founders, led by Pep Mercadé, retain majority ownership after the financing. The company is headquartered in Barcelona and operates in the internet/boat-rental sector. BoatBureau is an online boat-rental platform founded in 2011 in Barcelona that provides access to a global fleet offered by professional owners. The platform aggregates more than 16,000 vessels from over 400 professional owners across about 100 countries, with real-time online availability and an available online fleet of 4,500 boats expected to rise to ~9,000 by early 2016. Since launching activity in 2013 the company has completed more than 1,000 rentals and is approaching €3 million in revenue; sales grew over 200% in 2014 and were projected to double again in 2015. BoatBureau has positioned itself as a leader in Spain for 10–20 meter boats while operating globally and plans to expand vessel types, length ranges and destinations. The company intends to invest in web technology to provide a fully automated rental service, improve usability and transactional capabilities, and deploy an ambitious digital marketing plan. It also plans to adapt its organizational structure to absorb the expected sales growth and accelerate international expansion.

Participated · Equity · Oct 2013

Reclamador operates a crowdcomplaining platform that aggregates similar consumer claims and pursues them on a NO WIN, NO FEE model. The company says it has served more than 160,000 customers and has reclaimed over €95 million on their behalf. Reclamador reported €3.3 million in revenue for 2017, a 57% increase year‑over‑year, and an EBITDA of €507,361 (up from €62,000 in 2016); it forecasted €4.5 million in revenue for the current year. The startup plans to use new capital to strengthen its financial position, develop new digital functionalities to improve legal processes, and reinforce its commercial strategy to grow its user base. The company was founded in August 2012, is based in Madrid and employed about 110 people at the time of the report. Reclamador.es operates a "crowdcomplaining" platform that manages collective customer claims against airlines, charging consumers a success fee for delays and lost or damaged baggage. The company was founded by Pablo Rabanal and is based in Madrid, Spain. It has more than 5,000 customers. Reclamador.es closed a €500k funding round to support growth. The company intends to use the funds to strengthen its presence in Spain and to expand into other sectors such as telecommunications and banking beyond airlines. Prior to this raise, the company had secured an initial €100k in early 2013. Reclamador operates a free website that assists passengers in submitting flight compensation claims. The service is presented as a scalable web-based claims platform with potential to expand into other sectors and markets. The startup was founded by Pablo Rabanal, Juan Álvarez and Nacho del Pinedo. In March 2013 it received €100,000 from venture capital firm Grupo ITnet and a group of business angels. The investment was led by François Derbaix; other named investors include Yago Arbeloa and Miguel Arias. No operating metrics or revenue figures were disclosed in the article.