After the Pitch: Volare Boats Ramps Up for Growth
For Volare Boats, taking the Catalyst by Beemok stage helped introduce the company to a much broader audience. Since then, that exposure has translated into new investors, customers and opportunities as the company prepares to scale production.
“Catalyst was a literal catapult for our business,” said Dustin Tupper, co-founder of Volare Boats. “It was a coming out event for Volare in the Charleston area for both our customer base and investor base.”
Following the competition, Volare received numerous inquiries about its boats and business, while the Catalyst investment helped attract additional investors to the company.
Fundraising has been one of Volare’s biggest milestones. As of early September, the company had raised $850,000 toward a $1.5 million capital raise in just weeks, with expectations that the total could reach at least $1.15 million by late-September.
Volare is putting its Catalyst investment to work scaling production to meet growing sales demand. Funding is supporting tooling, facility setup, equipment and other production needs as the company works to increase its manufacturing capacity.
The company is also seeing new opportunities on several fronts. Volare gained several customers through its Credit One Charleston Open shuttle service from The Cooper Hotel and has expanded its relationship with RAD Propulsion into the government sector, including work involving autonomous unmanned service vessels. It has also begun discussions with HavocAI and First In around additional government and military opportunities.
On the investment side, Volare has received funding from Charleston Angel Partners, Fund That Tiger and Meeting Street Capital.
Now, the company’s focus is firmly on what comes next: production.
Volare has customers awaiting deliveries and additional prospective customers waiting for production slots to become available. The company’s goal is to establish consistent production that will allow it to sell and deliver 100 boats annually.
That visibility has helped build a sales pipeline that Volare says now includes leads from around the world, along with the funding needed to begin producing boats for those customers.
Tupper encourages other founders and entrepreneurs in the Charleston community to experience the Catalyst Live Pitch Competition for themselves, whether or not they are taking the stage.
“If you’re a founder, go to the event,” Tupper said. “There’s so much you can learn from hearing other entrepreneurs pitch their businesses and it’s a great opportunity to meet people in the local entrepreneurial community.”
For Tupper, that community and the connections that come with it are part of what makes Catalyst valuable long after the pitches are over.