Dockwa parent company The Wanderlust Group makes waves with new funding

This week we made some waves in the boating and startup worlds by announcing our Series B funding round. Our boaters and marina partners are instrumental to how we build and where we succeed, so we want to take a moment to say thank you and keep you in the loop regarding what this means for the future of Dockwa. (In short: really, really cool stuff.)

First, the basics – what's the story? Dockwa's parent company, The Wanderlust Group, raised $14.2M from private investors. You can read more about the funding in CrunchBase, Axios Pro Rata, TechCrunch, American Inno,  Fortune, Skift, Bloomberg, Boston Globe's Rhode Map, Yahoo! Finance, Newport Daily News, Venture Capital Journal, and Cheddar TV.  (Want to share the news? Share our Facebook post of the TechCrunch article, Cheddar interview, BostInno, and Newport Daily News.) 

Next question: Will the Dockwa team be changing? Yes and no:

The current team stays put, continuing to work —remotely— doing what we love: helping boaters get out on the water, helping marinas save boatloads of time on manual processes like making contracts and chasing down payments, and building tools and telling stories on both sides of the coin.

But we'll also be tackling some new projects within Dockwa's software, website, and app, and beyond — which means we'll be bringing in some new crew. Read what The Wanderlust Group is all about, and if this sounds like a mission you can get behind, ship your info to jobs@wanderlustgroup.com. 

Will the Dockwa app be changing? You bet your bottom paint. 

This funding means we have the resources to build new tools for all boaters – distance cruisers, weekend warriors, liveaboards, daytrippers, snowbirds, charterers, and professional captains – as well as marinas, yacht clubs, boat storage facilities, and more. 

To start, we'll be improving transactions so marinas can more deftly field your transient and long-term boating needs. Things like: 

• Streamlined Transactions. To a boater, our app might seem fairly straightforward, but behind the scenes marinas have a ton of features at their fingertips: they can seamlessly approve your reservation, field long-term storage requests, process payments, tack on Boat Charges like ice and fuel, and create, send, and monitor contracts in seconds. Why stop there? In 2021, we'll support every transaction you have with your marina: pay for your slip, checkout at the ship store or restaurant, pay for fuel – the list goes on. Every transaction will be effortless and clear. 

• Simplified Accounting. Fast, simple, and reliable reservation data is crucial to boaters and marinas alike. We're already hard at work improve our software to make this a seamless experience for boaters, marina managers, owners, and accountants in 2021. This update will be available for everyone, from the mom & pop shops we all know and love to the 2,000-slip marinas that want to run a tight ship while still offering responsive customer service. 

On the boater side, we're excited to put more engineering focus on in-app trip planning, managing your float plans, sharing your ship's logs, and more. 

We're just getting started, and can't wait to show you what's next. Stay tuned.