Borrow A Boat to continue trading ‘uninterrupted’

British boat rental and yacht charter marketplace Borrow A Boat has been acquired by a group of investors and CEO and founder Matt Ovenden.

The company has made assurances to its customers that trading is continuing uninterrupted, as the business has changed hands and is acquired through a pre-pack process.

Borrow A Boat Ltd entered an administrative process in March 2023, divesting from yachting holiday firm Helm following a ‘first-hand experience of the challenging Venture Capital fundraising market’.

The business and assets of Borrow A Boat have been acquired by founder, Matt Ovenden, and a group of Borrow A Boat investors. The business’ approximately 3,000 original crowdfunding benefactors will also be brought over to the new entity.

The business has been purchased through a pre-pack process that moves the company to a new legal entity while allowing the business to continue. The regulated pre-pack process means that the company and its team have been saved from sinking – and new capital has been brought in to power the business forward.

In a statement, the company says that following a record-breaking 2022 the business fell victim to the wider economic malaise due to its reliance on external VC funding rounds, powering a high-growth capital-fuelled growth strategy. Following the change in ownership, the new company says it plans to focus on digital growth and tech-powered scalable automation with minimum reliance on external capital, to grow as efficiently as possible through digital channels.

“Following a challenging start to the year, we’re looking to optimise the technology to create super lean operations and scalable digital growth, minimising reliance on external investment,” says Ovenden. “We’re delighted that we’ve been able to save the business and give it a future for the employees and crowdfunders, and are excited about the digital growth we can now look to achieve in this massive global market.”