X Shore crowdfunding campaign raises €1.5M
UPDATE: October 10, 2019
When the X Shore crowdfunding campaign closed at midnight on October 9 the final tally for the electric boat company was funding of €1.5 million – US$ 1.66 – raised through the FundedByMe platform.
As you can see from the notes below, the amount is more than three times the goal of €475,000 set in July when the campaign began.
“I am really excited to have our new crowd investors on board for the next phase of our journey,” said X Shore Founder and CEO Konrad Bergström. “I’ve put my own money behind X Shore because I want a better tomorrow for our oceans, and I’m confident that together, we can, and need, to accelerate positive change to realize this vision. Our goal is to fundamentally change how we travel at sea and it is incredible to see that so many like-minded investors have decided to back our mission.”
Congratulations to Konrad Bergström and the entire X Shore crew!
UPDATE: October 3, 2019
X Shore crowdfunding campaign over budget – 1 week remaining to participate
Electric boat manufacturer X Shore has had an extremely exciting reception to its crowdfunding investment campaign on FundedByMe. It reached double the goal set in July and is now entering the final week of participation, which ends on Wednesday, October 9 at 23:59 GMT.
FundedByMe says over 10M Swedish Krona (US$ 1M) has been committed from more than 275 investors. Among them are high profile investors including royalties, politicians, actors and high level sportsmen.
You can see former Formula One World Champion Nico Rosberg toodling around last week’s Monaco Yacht Show in the boat with X Shore founder Konrad Bergström on Nico’s Instagram story and find out more about the X Shore funding below or on the FundedByMed X Shore page.
Original Story July 20, 2019
Swedish electric boat company X Shore has launched a program through crowdfunding site FundedByMe in which participants purchase shares in a public company “Friends of X Shore” that in turn will acquire a stake in the existing X Shore AB company.
This form of raising investment money seems to be catching on in the electric boat world. In May Finnish electric motor company Oceanvolt did a similar fundraising plan using the Invesdor crowdfunding platform. Hopefully X Shore will have similar results to Oceanvolt: they raised €2M Euros, well over 3 times the goal of €600,000!
X Shore making news with its electric boats
X Shore first came to public attention in early 2018 (its facebook page was started in February ‘18) and as we wrote back in March it is the realization of a 20+ year dream that founder Konrad Bergström first started working towards in 1996 . Having also been one of the founders of Zound, the company that brought the world Urbanears and Marshall headphones, he knows a thing or two about turning dreams into reality.
The X Shore boats themselves are beautifully designed and crafted, with wooden surface detailing and a ridged hull design that decreases hull/water friction and can reduce energy use by approximately 35%. There are 3 fully customizable models – the Eelex 6500 and 8000 and the Eeltrek 8000. Range is up to 100 nautical miles on one charge with a top speed capability of 40 knots using a “groundbreaking propulsion system”.
The company has been making news in lots of way over the past few months. X Shore participated in the EVERMonaco international conference of Electric Vehicles and Renewable Energies, showcased the 6500 at the Venice Boat Show, received a special mention in the UIM (Union Internationale Motonautique) Environmental Awards and its website was even nominated for an international Webby Award.
Different levels of investment start at €150
The funding goal for the crowd investing program is set at a minimum of €474,580 (5M Swedish Korona) and a high end of five times that amount: €2,372,900 (SEK 25,000,000). The campaign is scheduled to run until August 20, but will end earlier if that maximum goal is reached before then. Interest seems to be high – as of July 20 the minimum goal had been exceeded by €150,000 with 31 days to go.
As with many crowdfunding programs, there are varying levels of participation. The minimum investment is less than €150 Euros (1,500 SEK) and the ‘Out in the Ocean’ level of €950 (10,000 SEK) gets you not only a bit of the company but also a free test-drive ticket in Stockholm. Anything above that and you’ll receive appropriate equity plus an invitation to a test drive and 10% discount on one X Shore craft of your choice.
Basic details are available on the FundedByMe page and you can sign up to join FundedByMe and get access to detailed information about the the investment as well as the X Shore company, its products and its executives. In addition to Mr. Bergström’s successes, Chief Financial Officer Andreas Larsson has 15 years of experience as CFO in start ups and public companies.
As pointed out on the page, “The global electric boat market is estimated to reach USD 14.3 billion by 2023 from USD 7.8 billion in 2017 (source:Business Wire)“.
Who knows, maybe this is your chance to be part of it.
