Thank you for being a part of the MarkSetBot investor group. Below, we’re pleased to share our quarterly progress across a few focus areas – financials, team news, and industry updates – and we’ll wrap up with how you can help.
We’re excited to share the progress we’ve made… Notably, we’ve built our 320th Bot and eclipsed an impressive 26,000 days on the water. While we’re proud to be trusted by the biggest regattas around the world, we’ve also grown our reach and impact with smaller, volunteer-led clubs. We’ve continued to enhance our user experience with software and product updates, fostered partnerships with other sailing technology companies, and signed new dealers in high-growth regions.
Read on for more details:
FINANCIALS
- We are targeting 30% growth over 2022 with projected total revenue of $1.2 million.
- While revenue through Q2 2023 is lower than 2022 YTD, our revenue trendline is sloping upwards whereas 2022 started very strong with two very large orders and then tapered off later in the year yielding a downward trendline.
- Closed sales are up more than 8% over 2022 YTD and show a similar, upward trendline. June 2023 was our third best month in terms of revenue in company history.
- Our current new business pipeline stands at almost $2.7 million.
- Average gross margin, one of our critical success factors, has improved by about 9 points through Q2 2023 over 2022 numbers. June gross margin hit 44%, only one point off our target.
TEAM NEWS
- Our team and staffing have remained consistent throughout 2023, which has helped us to improve manufacturing processes and product quality. It has also helped us to build sales momentum by maintaining relationships with our clients. The number of clubs purchasing additional Bots or add-on technologies has been very encouraging.
- We recently closed a deal with the America’s Cup, among the highest-profile events in the sailing world. We will provide 20 boundary Bots for two test events in 2023 and 30 Bots for the two-month-long main event in 2024.
- We also signed a three-season renewal agreement with SailGP, a global racing circuit we have partnered with since 2019. We now provide racing Bots for SailGP Inspire, boundary Bots for the F50 races, and our technology powers the racing Bots for the F50’s as well.
- We signed a new South American dealer, Oceanic Chile, SA, whose first event will be the Pan Am Games in Santiago, Chile. We will have 8 Bots across two racecourses at the Games. Oceanic has deep marine expertise, having acted as a boat dealer and purveyor of sails and other related equipment for many years. This longevity has helped them build strong relationships throughout the region. Bringing Oceanic into the fold gives us a presence in an entirely new continent!
- We also signed a dealer agreement with FourthCape, a UK-based sports management company that is focused on sailing projects, events, and branding. Previously, MarkSetBot has run several events in the UK, but had no official presence in the world’s 2nd largest sailing market, so this will help us grow in this important geography.
INDUSTRY UPDATES
- Interest in our robotic buoys is growing at an increasing rate as evidenced by the number of inquiries fielded by both our internal team and our dealer network.
- In 2023, we shipped our first order to Israel and also sent follow-on orders to our dealers in Japan.
- While demand remains strong at the upper echelons of the sailing world, an encouraging sign is the level of interest and sales to smaller, volunteer-driven clubs. These types of clubs host the vast majority of the sailing throughout the world, so getting traction here will be an essential component of our continued growth.
- Another very encouraging sign is the number of conversations we have been having regarding non-sailing uses including military uses, swimming safety, weather-related uses, and other more closely adjacent spaces, like powerboat racing.
- With regard to powerboat racing, we recently provided a live demo to the American Power Boating Association, where we proved that MarkSetBot can hold position while boats speed around them at over 100 MPH. Initial estimates indicate that this market is similar in scale to sailing and that our product will require little to no modification to be effective.
INVESTOR ASSISTANCE
- We are currently looking to hire an additional salesperson to help facilitate our growth plans for 2024 and beyond. Any referrals for experienced resources would be deeply appreciated. The ideal candidate would either be in the sailing world, or would have other marine qualifications.
- We are planning to launch a new round of fundraising later this year. Our goal is to raise $2 million through a traditional fundraising round. If you are interested in investing or can make referrals to people who are, please connect us.
- Ideas! We are interested in hearing ideas about other ways that our patented autonomous buoy technology could be used to meet business or environmental needs. While we love revolutionizing the sport of sailing, we know that there are other wonderful potential uses and we hope that our investor network can help make suggestions (and connections!)
Recent Comments