Electric boat investments sailing along with $37.M+ for outboards, hydrofoils
While the financial headlines these days may not be the most optimistic in general, buoyant enthusiasm is the word of the day in the electric boat world with recent investments worth tens of millions of dollars, Swiss francs, Euros and yuan coming in for four companies based in four countries.
- MobyFly of Switzerland successfully closed a Series A funding round of CHF 10.1M ((€10,8M / $12.5M)) to accelerate their mission of designing and delivering zero-emission boats for the fast ferry market.
- China’s Explomar raised more than USD $10 million in new financing to support the expansion of their global distribution and service network, development of its supply chain, and ongoing product refinement.
- Flux Marine of the USA announced a $15 million infusion of capital (≈ €13M) to scale outboard production and expand core technology sales.
- Qatar’s Al Masdar Investment has acquired a 63% majority stake in Germany’s TYDE, the electric hydrofoiling yacht company founded by Dr. Christoph Ballin in 2021, 16 years after he first changed the world of boating when he co-founded Torqeedo.
MobyFly: zero-emission hydrofoiling ferries
MobyFly, a winner of the 2022 Gussies Electric Boat Awards, was founded in 2020 to develop zero-emission hydrofoiling vessels for urban transport. The company is headed by Sue Putallaz, Ricardo Bencatel and Anders Bringdal, the 5 time world champion windsurfer who went on to join the crew of the Hydroptere foiling sail boat that set a world speed record of 51,36 knots (95 kph / 60 mph).
The company has three models: the MBFY-S (12 pax), MBFY-M (60-120 pax), and MBFY-L (300+ pax—design in progress). In a world of objects named with seemingly random combinations of letters and numbers that only engineers can decipher, it is refreshing for this writer that the S, M and L designations in the MobyFly fleet stand simply for Small, Medium and Large.
First prototype 20% more efficient than anticipated
The boats are powered by a dual-engine system (one on each side) developed by MobyFly’s in-house technical team and paired with an advanced electronic management system. Their proprietary retractable foil design, developed in collaboration with Caponnetto Hueber and STYachts, allows the vessels to operate in waters as shallow as 60 cm and enables flexible maneuvering and docking.
The first prototype, a 10 metre model, was launched on Lake Geneva in December of 2024 and has received near-universal praise. Its first flight showed that the hydrofoil’s design was significantly more efficient than anticipated, using almost 20% less energy than originally projected.
CTO Bencatel say the company plans “to launch the first production model in the summer of 2026 and sell several units for passenger transport by the end of the year”.
Explomar: medium to high power electric outboards
Having just come off an exciting summer where they launched a new battery, secured a contract with an international bass boat manufacturer, outfitted a Portuguese whale watcher and won the Offshore Race at the Monaco Energy Boat Challenge, Chinese outboard manufacturer ExploMar is getting ready for the next phase: building a global distribution and service network for recreational and commercial operators.
Read: Explomar’s excellent summer
The USD $10 million round to fuel this growth was led by private equity investors and a listed company in China, with continued backing from existing shareholder DCM Ventures.
Development driven by real life testing
Founded in 2021, Explomar has been steadily growing its market share in the medium and high-power electric outboard segment. Their Wave series of outboards – the Wave 70+, Wave 150+ and flagship Wave 300 have been paired with the company’s Super Island battery systems for deployment and testing in Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America. Over a wide variety of operating conditions and use cases, the system has received high marks from customers for reliability and performance.
This test-driven development approach has served them well and the company plans to continue with it as it expands, operating multiple prototype vessels to validate performance, handling, and durability across varying conditions.
“Securing this level of investment reflects the confidence our partners have in technology that has already proven itself in the field,” says Alex Dong, CEO of ExploMar. “Our systems have been tested in demanding environments around the world, and this financing allows us to strengthen our global support network and continue improving the performance and practicality of electric propulsion for a wide range of vessels.”
Flux Marine: electric outboards and system technology
Similarly to Explomar, US-based electric propulsion company Flux Marine has dedicated much of their time and energy to testing their 115HP electric outboard and modular battery pack with clients, and are now ready to get them onto as many boats as possible.
Their $15 million infusion, from Collide Capital and existing investors and customers including Ocean Zero, will be allocated to scaling outboard production and expanding core technology sales.
“After several years of internal prototyping and testing, we put systems in the hands of early adopters to rigorously validate real-world performance and rapidly iterate through customer feedback,” said Ben Sorkin, CEO of Flux. “This period of testing with customers required a significant investment of time and resources but contributes to the overall capital efficiency of the company and instills confidence, and we have now delivered more high-voltage electric outboards than any other company in North America over the last 18 months.”
Read: Flux Marine and Highfield move electric RIBS closer to mainstream
Those boatyard customers cover a wide range of hulls and uses and include everything from aquaculture workboats in Maine to performance speedboats to pontoons to RIBS to twin-outboard superyacht tenders in the British Virgin Islands. Scout Boats, Highfield, Flagship Pontoon, Hyfoil and Zodiac are all on the client list, with Highfield being the first company to sign a new rigging partnership to put Flux electric motors on their Sport 660 model.
One of the big differences between fossil fuel and electric propulsion is that the electric developers create whole systems rather than engineering their motors in isolation from the fuel supply and other links in a drive train. The Flux technology team has developed their own high voltage battery packs with very high continuous discharge and very low internal resistance so the batteries do not need to be actively cooled – even in the tropical water of the Virgin Islands.
Electric boat investments seek return from technologies
They are part of Flux’s proprietary ‘electric stack’ that includes the batteries, BMS (Battery Management System), software and telematics that allow the Flux team to continuously monitor system health, perform remote diagnostics, configure over-the-air (OTA) updates, and gather unique insights from trip data. Features are added in each new release, with AI-powered predictive maintenance and route optimization on the horizon.
Sorkin says their technology platform and capabilities have garnered interest from other industries and that they have been leaning into dual-use opportunities and delivering solutions for autonomous and uncrewed applications. “Demand for our core technology continues to increase, and we’re excited to support that demand, alongside our outboard propulsion products, across the globe.”
TYDE: electric hydrofoiling yachts
Marine mobility company TYDE created a memorable debut for their flagship ICON model in 2021 when they launched it at Cannes…but at the Film Festival rather than the Yachting Festival. In 2023 they revealed designs for a second boat, the 15m / 48 ft TYDE OPEN, but the company (which was founded by Torqeedo co-founder Chistroph Ballin) has been fairly quiet since then.
Now Al Masdar Investment (AMI), a Qatari-based private investment company that partners with visionary founders and global innovators, has acquired a 63% majority stake in TYDE in their pursuit of bringing world-class solutions in a variety of sectors to the Gulf region and beyond.
The strategic acquisition marks a major step in AMI’s mission to drive sustainable innovation and green technology across global industries, including mobility, energy, and advanced manufacturing. As part of the transaction, Al Masdar Investment will inject new capital into TYDE to finance the development of next-generation models and to support an aggressive global go-to-market strategy across luxury, commercial, and urban marine mobility sectors.
Private and urban transport markets
Ballin, CEO of TYDE, said “Partnering with Al Masdar Investment allows TYDE to accelerate its mission to redefine marine mobility through sustainability and innovation. With this strategic alliance, we can scale our technology, expand globally, and bring zero-emission water transport to both private and urban markets faster than ever before,”
TYDE’s proprietary hydrofoil technology reduces energy consumption by up to 80%, decreases greenhouse gas emissions by over 90%, and delivers a superior passenger experience through silent, smooth, high-speed flight above the water.
The partnership will also support urban water-mobility initiatives in Qatar and the wider MENA region, including potential deployment in Lusail, The Pearl, and Doha Corniche corridors.
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