Borrow A Boat, part of The Boat Engine Group, has completed the purchase of Berlin-based boating marketplace Zizoo.
The acquisition creates one of the largest boating marketplaces worldwide.
The acquisition is part of Borrow A Boat ́s growth strategy as the company looks to expand operations globally, and consolidate other markets.
Borrow A Boat has been adding platforms to its group over the years to serve an expanding and increasingly digitised boat-rental market.
Through the acquisition of Zizoo, which specialises in the multi-day rental / boating holiday segment, the group will expand its inventory to over 60,000 boats in more than 65 countries worldwide.
Borrow A Boat which also owns day-hire boat rental platform, Barqo, which has operations in London and Amsterdam and will combine with Zizoo ́s teams in Berlin and Athens (Greece) to build their global reach.
The European-based platform will cover all three key market segments in boat rental – day-hires, boating holidays, and luxury crewed charters.
Fastest growing
“The boat rental market is one of the fastest growing travel segments and we’re on a mission to make boating more accessible to everyone – worldwide,” said Matt Ovenden, CEO and founder of Borrow a Boat. “The acquisition of Zizoo will create one of the biggest boating marketplaces in the world, with a global footprint, customer base and reach, allowing us to enhance our marketplace of exceptional boating experiences.
“By incorporating Zizoo’s own technology, teams and solutions, we will also be able to continue to deliver a high service offering for our industry colleagues who we work with on a daily basis.”
Anna Banicevic, founder of Zizoo added: “The successful closing of the sale of Zizoo to Borrow A Boat’s group is good news for our industry colleagues and customers.
“Zizoo has gone through a tremendous growth journey over the years which also brought some operational challenges that culminated in the last few months in a tough funding environment, and we believe this is an opportunity for a new journey with a player that shares our tech vision but also a goal of stability and customer-centricity.”
She added: “We believe that joining The Boat Engine Group will allow us to collaboratively create an even more powerful engine to drive change, innovation and amazing customer experiences in the industry and wider travel market.”
The companies are reassuring customers there will be minimum disruption to existing bookings.
