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Today’s feature of Quick Pitch is an early-stage start up making waves in sustainable adventure sports.
The Market
$485B is spent each year on adventure tourism and is increasing 15% CAGR. $3.5B of this comes from all sailing yacht sales. With the growth of an already large TAM there’s an opportunity to build the world-first “net-zero” fleet of commercially suitable off-shore yachts.
This week's business solves two major problems:
There is currently limited access to off-shore sailing yachts suitable for commercial use.
Additionally there is very limited access to yachts that do not pollute the environment across build, operations and disposal phases.
One Liner
Sustainable sailing yachts perfectly designed for ocean adventure.
Quickfire
Headquarters: London
Employee count: 6 (including advisors)
Business model: Lease and sale model. Lease the first yachts to sailing operators (launch customer confirmed as Wavysail). Plans to eventually move to a selling model.
Investors: Aside from the 2 founders, 3 investors who have committed ~£200k so far.
Funding amount: £1M which will be used to get the first commercial yacht in the water, either as equity or can be taken as a convertible loan with the first yacht as security (S/EIS approved).
Traction metrics: Yacht utilisation of 35% or above forecast for Y1 and rising to 70% by Y3.
Due Diligence
APPEALS Yachts built from a revolutionary material to which they have unique access: Built from natural mineral fibre that is 10-years ahead of the next best competitors. Stronger than steel, lighter than fibreglass, 100% recyclable and 0% fossil fuel in production. Wavysail and Expedition Zero in their own ecosystem: Founder Andrew Cowen also owns Wavysail; an adventure sailing business which guarantees leasing revenue from day one of commercialisation. Strategic partnership with Innovation Yachts: World-leading, award winning sustainable yacht construction reserved only for Expedition Zero creating a serious moat to competitors. | POTENTIAL RISKS Failure to secure a sponsor in Y1: Currently in discussion with several major brands to secure sponsorship alongside the employment of a dedicated partnerships director. Under-utilised yacht in Y1 (<35%): Already pre-sold spaces on the launch expedition and advanced discussions with two sailing operators looking to lease and a sales agent in UAE. Technology of the yacht is un-workable and causes significant costs: Technical prototype (built in mineral fibre) has completed 25,000 miles of ocean testing. |
Competition
KM Yachts (Netherlands) custom-build off-shore adventure sailing yachts for commercial use. They are established, but only built in Aluminium (less sustainable) and sell direct to customers (no leasing options).
Majority of yacht builders (Bavaria, Nautors Swan, Beneteau). However they are focused on the recreational market with limited off-shore yachts offering, and no expertise in commercial off-shore requirements.
Founders
Founder & CEO; Andrew Cowen: 20 years of commercial experience gained in blue chip FMCG including Unilever, Diageo and Scholl Footcare, up to global board level. History of supporting and developing successful start-ups and scale-ups since 2018 (Zappit, Bien-etre, Skin in Motion as part of his own consultancy. Founded Wavysail (2020) and now Expedition Zero (2024).
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