This summer, the large family of boaters welcomed its millionth member! A joyous event that coincided with our team celebrating its 10th anniversary: the best gift we could receive!
10 years, 1 million users, a shared pride, and an opportunity to reflect on these years of development: from the app’s humble beginnings in an apartment in the old port of Nice to the established team of 20 people serving boaters worldwide!
2013: Where the idea began
Edouard and Ben, two university friends and recent business school graduates, planned a well-deserved week of holiday on Benjamin’s family sailboat. A week meant for relaxation but, like any boaters, they encountered classic problems: finding a spot in a marina in summer, getting information on well protected anchorages, forecasting gusts of wind, and more!
An experience that got the two friends thinking: why isn’t there an app to avoid this?
A simple question that laid the foundation for their work and continues to drive the development of Navily today.
2014: The beginnings
After both took the plunge and quit their prior jobs, the two friends launched into the adventure full of enthusiasm and preparation. In an apartment in the old port of Nice, armed with two computers, a whiteboard, and the solid experience they had gained, the Navily adventure began!
Quickly joined by their first intern, Manuel, the trio soon grasped the scope of the work and united around a goal: to create a community dedicated to mutual aid, information sharing, and the safety of boaters worldwide.
With community at the heart of the project, the team focused on developing a simple and efficient interface: a map, points of interest (anchorages and marinas), a photo and comment-sharing feature, and the groundwork was laid!
In June 2014, the first version of the app, dedicated to adding and rating anchorages, was launched. By the end of the summer, the app had 3,500 members and 2,000 shared photos and comments
2015: NavilyPro
In 2015, NavilyPro, an innovative software for managing bookings in marinas, was launched. Although the subject remained delicate and met with resistance, some marinas decided to trust us. Result: 130 bookings made that summer!
2018 : Marina rating
In 2018, we introduced the ability to rate marinas, expanding the sharing possibilities for the boating community, which exceeded the symbolic 100,000-member mark that year. A growing community that started to adopt the reservation tool, with over 25,000 bookings recorded that year!
2019: Navily Premium
In 2019, Navily developed new navigation assistance features with automatic route planning, offline mode, and the Navily weather score (based on weather/swell forecasts). These advanced features formed the basis of Navily Premium, launched the same year!
2020: Continued development
In 2020, we introduced the in-app chat feature, allowing members to start exchanging with each other by making their profiles public! Boaters were now also able to add anchorage alerts and send an SOS in case of distress. Finally, it’s the beginning of advanced search filters, available with Premium.
2021: Full sail ahead
The year of 500,000 members and €1 million in revenue reached! 14,000 reservations were recorded this year in more than 700 partner marinas! The cruising speed is reached, and Navily is developing at full throttle.
2023: Posidonia protection
2023 is a landmark year for Navily. We launched the collaborative “nearby businesses” section with user reviews, a campaign to raise awareness for Posidonia protection, and a dedicated section for affected anchorages. Finally, during that year, Navily became profitable with over 40,000 reservations and €5 million in revenue generated for our partner marinas.
2024: Setting sail for new horizons
Today, we are around twenty passionate individuals developing Navily for more than a million boaters and 1,100 partner ports. Driven by the success of recent years and a bright horizon ahead, we enthusiastically continue the development of Navily into the future, with one idea in mind: making your life on the water easier…
Enjoyed the journey? Rate us on the online stores!
If you are reading this and are a Navily member, we thank you for your contribution to Navily’s development and hope the experience we are creating meets your expectations! If it does, feel free to rate us on the online stores, a small gesture that means a lot to us.
The Navily team thanks you and wishes you fair winds, Captain!
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