Boat Planet raised $1.2 million in a seed round, led by 46 Venture Capital out of Tulsa, OK with participation from the St. Louis based Ascend Venture Capital, Quad Two Capital out of Tulsa and several ‘boating oriented’ angel investors.
Michael Kiel, Boat Planet CEO
We literally put together a team of passionate boaters – the VCs are boaters, the angels are boaters. Everyone has a deep understanding of this industry,” CEO Michael Kiel told bizblip. “This funding allows us to scale up our technology and bring the new (mobile and web) apps to market.”
The boating services startup connects boat owners with vetted marine professionals in their area. Founded in November 2019 its headquartered in the urban CORTEX district of St. Louis, Missouri. It currently employs six full-time staff after recently adding key hires like a CTO, Head of Product and a developer.
Kiel says the company has over 35,000 marine professionals already onboarded, spanning all 50 U.S. states, with aims to exceed 50,000 by year’s end. In 2023 Boat Planet pitched at InvestMidwest in St. Louis. In 2019 the startup was accepted into the Tech Wildcatters in Dallas, picking up a $30,000 equity investment with a commitment to take part in a later institutional round.
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