THE maker of a navigation app for boats has had a record year after doubling revenue in the past quarter.

Savvy Navvy, based in Bournemouth, was founded four years ago with a mission to simplify boating technology.

Its app has plotted more than 43million miles for hundreds of thousands of users in more than 100 countries.

Chief executive Jelte Liebrand, from Poole, set up Savvy Navvy with Kevin O’Neill in 2017.

Mr Liebrand, an engineer who previously worked for Google, is an avid sailor who developed the ide on the Pacific ocean while taking part on the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race.

He said: “Savvy Navvy really is as simple as Google Maps for boats. Our vision is that everyone should and can enjoy boating and over the past four years we have worked hard to develop our app to simplify boating technology.

“We’re constantly evolving and making changes based on user feedback in order to get more people out on the water. This year has been our biggest yet and while some of our success is down to the big boom happening in boating at the moment, working directly with our end-users to hear their views has enabled us to make a better product that meets the market demand to simplify boating navigation.”

The company’s first crowdfunding campaign in 2019 and had to be closed down in less than six days as it was so successful.

It has since raised a total of £1.8million in two further campaigns. After a difficult 2020 because of the pandemic, it doubled its revenue in the last quarter of this year and already exceeded its user growth targets for 2021.

“After pressing a giant pause button on our plans in 2020 due to the pandemic, the ‘boating boom’ we’re currently experiencing in the industry has led to a huge growth in our user numbers globally,” said Mr Liebrand.

“The majority of our app users are in the UK, but we are in increased demand in global markets such as America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Our vision from the outset has been for savvy navvy to be in every boater’s pocket and we’re coming increasingly close to that. Heading into our fifth year lots more is planned for 2022, including exciting developments looking at driving engagement, technical advances, as well as innovative partnerships helping boaters across the globe.”

Savvy navvy won a Tech South West award last year and earlier this month Mr Liebrand was a panellist at Silicon South Network’s Innovation Clinic about adopting new technologies and big data in industries.

The company also has an award-winning boating podcast, The Boating Life.