Serbian startup Molo, whose marina management software helps marinas organize their customers, berths and boat management, has been acquired by Storable, a self-storage software and technology provider based in Texas.
Molo’s technology helps maritime businesses increase revenue, reduce administrative burden and better interact with their customers. Its co-founders Rodoljub Stojiljkovic and Lucas Isola, both boaters, founded Molo with the intention of bringing powerful, easy-to-use tools to the marina industry.
“The marina industry is rapidly evolving to require more sophisticated technology and Storable will leverage the best practices they have perfected in storage to help Molo accelerate technological innovation for the marina industry,” the company said in a press release.
Molo is also one of South Central Ventures’ portfolio companies, with the fund investing in the startup in 2019.
According to SC Ventures, the €40 million fund dedicated to investing in startups and small and medium-sized tech companies in the Western Balkans, the deal is another testament to how founders from the Southern European region -Is can create successful businesses on a global scale.
“Rodoljub and Lucas had a vision to bring innovation to the nautical industry by digitalizing workflows, processes and payments in nautical marina management. They established a development team in Serbia while focusing their sales efforts on the US market. During their journey, they raised funding from friends, family, business angels and venture capital funds,” Jan Kobler, managing partner of SC Ventures, tells The Recursive.
For Kobler, Molo’s story is a classic example of how to build, grow and sell a tech startup.
“In retrospect, it all seems pretty simple and logical: the founders identified a problem in an industry they knew, built a solution, started onboarding customers, and kept it very simple and efficient while doing it all. In reality, every entrepreneur knows how much hard work and personal sacrifice lies behind it,” says Kobler, adding that SC Ventures will continue to support and invest in companies like Molo.
In its portfolio, SC Ventures also includes companies such as Ad scannerInPlayer and Cognism.
As part of the acquisition, the Molo team will remain in place to continue to lead the marina business unit within Storable, the company said.
According to Lucas Isola, co-founder of Molo, the company will now look forward to leveraging the Storable model to create a powerful suite of products in the maritime industry.
“Storable not only provides software to a large portion of the storage industry, but they also have a marketplace, payment product, insurance, and a new IoT access control product “Isola said in a statement.
“There are many natural opportunities to achieve significant economies of scale and offer our customers enhanced capabilities to optimize their businesses. This is just the beginning and great things are to come,” Isola concluded.