Slashing CO2Ultra-powerful electric boats.
Big Picture
About 90% of the world’s traded goods move by boat. Hauling mountains of mass guzzles millions of tons of dirty fuel and spews about 3% of all emissions. As the world grows more populated, wealthy, and globally connected, boats could drive 10% of all emissions by 2050. And while cargo ships get most of the blame, boats of all sizes–from ferries to speedboats to dinghies–pollute the atmosphere and oceans.
How it Works
Arc wants to electrify all waterborne vessels, starting with pleasure craft. While electrification might not yet be viable for freight ships, rapid advances in batteries not only make electrification of non-cargo vessels possible, but pragmatic. Starting with higher-margin vessels in which batteries beat out gas on cost, operations, and maintenance enables Arc to scale up to larger boats like ferries and freight.
Unfair Advantage
Relative to the gas-guzzling competition, Arc’s high-performance boats are 100x easier to maintain, 10x cheaper to operate, stabler, quieter, and cleaner. Electric is just plain better in virtually every way. No existing manufacturer is positioned to win the electric market: gas boat manufacturers are too stagnant and fragmented while electric manufacturers can’t match Arc’s performance.
10
times cheaper
to operate than an ICE boat
MITCH LEE CEO & CO-FOUNDER
Mitch previously co-founded Penny, which was acquired by Credit Karma. Before software engineering, Mitch was a mechanical engineer at Boeing.
RYAN COOK CTO & CO-FOUNDER
Ryan spent 7 years as a lead mechanical engineer at SpaceX where he owned the first stage of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle.
Electric boat startup Arc wants to make a big splash
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Andreessen-Backed Startup to Sell $300,000 Electric Boats
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Shipping and climate change
Transport & Environment