At 23 feet long, the Arc Sport can carry up to 15 people at a time. It boasts a large battery with enough power to last 4-6 hours and has a top speed of 60 miles per hour. At that price, it competes with high-end models sold by traditional boat manufacturers such as Nautique, Mastercraft, and Malibu.
Arc is one of a handful of promising startups aiming to electrify sport and leisure boating, including GM-backed Pure Watercraft and Stockholm-based X Shore.
Traditional fuel-burning boats cause serious environmental problems such as noise pollution, smog, and floating water pollution in the surrounding water.
Mitch Lee, co-founder and CEO of Ark, spent his youth waterskiing, kneeboarding, and wakeboarding in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta near Stockton, Calif. He said he was constantly noticing the smell of diesel burning and engine effluent. .
He wanted to do something to reduce the negative effects of these sports, and partnered with Ryan Cook, a former SpaceX engineer and the company's CTO, to make that and a “better boating experience” a reality.
Arc's management team also includes veterans from marine, automotive, and transportation companies such as Tesla, Rivian, Lyft, Brunswick, and MarineMax, which means the company believes its design and technology could work. This helped convince investors that this was the case.
Approximately $110 million in early-stage funding for Arc comes from big-name investors including NBA players Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson, actor Will Smith, and venture capital funds Andreessen Horowitz, Eclipse Ventures, and Menlo Ventures. It was raised from a combination of angel investors and venture capital firms.
Lee said Arc was able to build an all-electric boat in a relatively short period of time, less than three years, because the auto industry had already invested years and billions of dollars to build a supply chain for the parts that go into electric vehicles. He said he was able to begin design and manufacturing. .
Rather than building components from scratch, as electric car makers Tesla and Rivian had to do in their early days, they buy components from trusted suppliers, allowing them to go from concept to dock in a matter of days rather than a decade. The CEO emphasized that it is now possible to reach this goal in 2020. .
Arc plans to begin delivering the new battery-electric Arc Sport to customers this year.
