Will Smith-backed Arc launches new $258,000 electric sport boat

Los Angeles-based start-up Arc on Tuesday launched a new mass-market electric sport boat, months after the company backed by basketball player Kevin Durant and Hollywood star Will Smith raised $70m (about R1,325,810,500) in early stage funding.

Called Arc Sport, it is priced at $258,000 (about R4,886,558) and comes about two years after the company, which declined to give its valuation, launched a $300,000 (about R5,682,660) premium speedboat, Arc One.

Arc Sport is 7-metres long and can accommodate 15 people. It has a 226kWh battery and is powered by a 425kW motor, and its software can be updated over the air. It can be reserved for $500 (about R9,471) from Tuesday and will be delivered later this year.

“Our first mass-market boat builds on the success of the Arc One, and is targeted at the wake sport industry due to strong demand at premium price points,” CEO Mitch Lee told Reuters.

Lee said two of the best-selling models in the industry have an average sales price of about $250,000 (about R4,735,462) and many others sell for more than $300,000.

Premium speedboat Arc One, which had a smaller battery with lesser power and passenger capacity, was sold out, said the company founded in 2021 by former Boeing engineers Lee and Ryan Cook.

Cook worked at the plane maker and later was a lead engineer at Elon Musk's rocket maker SpaceX.

The start-up's seed round, which closed in February 2021, was led by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. Later that year it added Smith's Dreamers VC and Durant's 35V as investors.

Some engineers and staff at the firm, which designs and makes batteries, motors and software in-house, come from SpaceX, Tesla, Rivian and marine companies including Brunswick and MarineMax.