Andreessen-backed start-up to sell US$300,000 electric boats built by former rocket engineers
- Backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Arc Boat has raised US$4.25 million in seed funding
- Prices will have to come down further before boats sold by Arc and its peers become more than niche products for wealthy buyers
Arc, a start-up with a deep bench of former SpaceX employees, is entering the fledgling market for electric boats with a US$300,000, 475-horsepower pleasure craft.
The Los Angeles-based company plans to have its first model, a sleek speed boat called the Arc One, ready for sale by the end of 2021, after which the company hopes to manufacture limited editions of the craft.
Backed by Andreessen Horowitz with participation from Chris Sacca’s Lowercarbon Capital fund, the company has raised US$4.25 million in seed funding.
Chief Executive Officer Mitch Lee founded the Arc Boat Co. with his college friend Ryan Cook, who shares a passion for sustainability and nature. Cook and Lee both majored in mechanical engineering at Northwestern University and have been working together since Lee helped recruit Cook to Boeing Co.
After Boeing, Cook spent seven years at Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp where, according to his LinkedIn profile, Cook worked on the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket. All of Arc’s employees except Lee have a background at SpaceX.
“The amount of carryover between rocket-building and boat-building is actually surprisingly high,” Lee said.
