Floatspace
Industry-First Boat Booking Platform
- Type: Retail
Floatspace
Floatspace is an innovative boating marketplace built on top of an industry-first technology platform.
Company Overview
Floatspace is a boat rental platform that simplifies the boat booking process for any events on the water.
Their proprietary technology “Boatbooked”, developed by leading online experience and travel industry engineers, streamlines the customer journey. From initial enquiry through to boarding the boat, real-time availability, live pricing, and automations provide an exceptional experience for both customers and boat owners.
Ranging from simple catamarans to luxury cruisers and superyachts, all boats on the platform are currently provided with a qualified captain and crew, meaning all the customer needs to do is focus on their event.
In a traditionally antiquated industry that's ripe for disruption, customers have been faced with a time consuming and complex process, identifying, selecting and paying for boats for their varying events. From a supply side perspective, boat owners deal with multiple localised agents, leading to time consuming and costly booking processes as well as potential errors.
Floatspace addresses this by feeding real-time availability through its software, enabling all variables from pricing, availability and inclusions to be catered for. Their industry-first live pricing removes ambiguity and hidden costs, enabling the customer to have an accurate and complete breakdown of their booking.
Through leading automation, the process is quick and efficient, providing the customer with information and certainty prior to boarding the boat. Floatspace’s technology has reduced the booking processing time by 90%, and swift transaction functions with synchronised automations enable high volumes of bookings to be processed for boat owners. The platform generates comparable boats and pricing, providing customers with a choice aligned to their desired event, while being presented with accurate pricing and availability for their event.
Having invested significant time and resources in building the platform to the industry-leading product it is today, Floatspace is seeking capital to turbocharge their growth. With a growing market, highly scalable model and customer behaviour tailwinds, there has never been a better time for Floatspace to take meaningful share both locally and overseas.
Investment Highlights
- Stellar Early Traction and Community Growth
In the short time since launching in 2020, Floatspace has processed over $5.7m in Gross Booking Value, growing at a CAGR of 71.2%. Growth has come across both the supply side (boats on platform) and demand side (customers), with over 200 boat partners on platform and 30,000 guests served.
- Growing Market with Behavioural Tailwinds
With over $56b spent in 2021 in the US alone, the global boating market is vast and growing strongly. Recreational boating has benefitted as consumers, coming out of COVID, place an increased emphasis on a fulfilling lifestyle. The global yacht charter market alone, worth USD $7.9 billion in 2022, is expected to reach USD $12.9 billion by 2028 at a CAGR of 8%.
- Scalable Model Leveraging Network Effects
Marketplace business models benefit from the network effect, meaning they are inherently more valuable the larger they grow. As Floatspace scales in terms of the supply side and demand side, it will become exponentially more valuable to each party. Tim Fung, Founder of hugely successful Australian services marketplace Airtasker, is a Floatspace investor as well as Mike Ford, Co Founder of SiteMinder and Rolf Hansen, Co Founder of Amaysim.
- Industry-First, Proprietary Technology “Boatbooked”
Floatspace’s proprietary Boatbooked technology has been specifically designed and built from the ground up to address the historically inefficient charter booking experience. With live availability, wharf maps, real time pricing and other automated features, the Boatbooked platform meaningfully overhauls the charter booking experience and brings it into the 21st century.
- International Expansion Already Underway
Floatspace has begun its voyage into overseas markets, having established a US subsidiary. Starting in Florida, they are beginning the journey of taking share in the massive US recreational boating market that is set to reach USD $26.2 billion by 2027.
- Award-Winning Australian Market Leader
Not content with being a leader in the Australian market, Floatspace’s early forays into the US have seen them pick up awards as recognition for the service they provide both customers and boat owners. Recognition includes winning the “2022 Best Marine Event Vessel Rental Company” award from Lux Life Magazine (across both Australia and the US), as well as being a finalist for the 2022 Shortyz Award for “Best Mobile Rental Accommodation Award”.
Why Equity Crowdfunding?
While the world takes to boating like a duck to water, Floatspace represents a material opportunity for investors to own a piece of a disruptor in a growing market. Boating is a communal activity, and Floatspace have always held their crew in the highest regard. For this reason, they have chosen to raise via equity crowdfunding, in order to give their suppliers, users and broader community the chance to take part and own a piece of their future.
Don’t miss the opportunity to get on board - register your interest to learn more!