An Interview with Artem Borodin, BoatPilot CEO: ‘BoatPilot is Essentially Marine Google Maps and TripAdvisor in one Software, with no Other Product Like it in the World’

“As an accurate navigation tool, Boatpilot enables yachtsmen to browse crucial coastal and marine objects with the help of detailed charts including marine routes, navigation signs, regional regulations, comments, photos, and alike.”

Augmented reality (AR) is an emerging technology that superimposes digital information directly on top of a user’s real world view. AR may have great potential for aiding safe marine navigation; however the devices currently available have significant limitations that prevent them from being practical for marine usage.

In light of the above-mentioned scenario, we are thrilled to present BoatPilot.

BoatPilot is a free marine navigation system. It is an innovative all-in-one pilot navigator with Augmented Reality mode for private and commercial yachting. The company offers detailed information about the yachting infrastructure, such as marinas, services, fueling stations, restaurants and points of interest.

BoatPilot offers you not only the standard mapping information but shows user remarks that make it possible to receive navigation data quickly.

The company is headquartered in Moscow, Russia.

Artem Borodin, BoatPilot CEO, spoke exclusively to The Silicon Review. Below is an excerpt.

Q. Why was the company set up? And how did you expand your company and its offerings over the years?

The best way to build a successful startup is to solve a problem that disturbs you personally. In my industry, yachting, the charter segment has the fastest progress, but private users still wait for an up-to-date navigation product similar to the ones the car market has. The main idea to help them was to make our product free for end users.

I lost my heart to yachting in 1998. Since ever, I covered more than 10 thousand miles in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. The idea of BoatPilot was born literally there. In 2012, I received my new yacht and had to put it in a marina in bad weather at night. The newest navigator showed outdated data (especially for lighthouses), so I was forced to use a paper pilot book.

Long story short, we started to design BoatPilot – the market’s first mobile platform that combines navigation, booking, advertising, and communication services for the private and charter yachting. It includes the all-in-one navigation service with augmented reality mode, an application for booking and selling yachts, reserving marinas and searching for fellow passengers, and advertising marketplace.

Q. What do you feel are the reasons behind your company’s reputation?

Unlike most existing marine navigation systems on the market, our product is uniquely developed for private yachtsmen and small yachting businesses.

The cloud-based infrastructure allows BoatPilot users to add and update the existing database and generate relevant content, which is checked and supported by other members in the yachting community. This structure leads to creating the most complete and precise navigation information database in the world. In addition to general information about coastal objects and services, BoatPilot also includes professional comments, photos, and sketches. The company supports an augmented reality (AR) function, as mentioned above, which allows the skipper to use AR glasses to see all necessary data incorporated into actual surroundings and avoid distractions by the traditional dash. This feature is especially useful during poor visibility conditions, or at night.

Tell us more about AR functionality.

As mentioned earlier, through the use of its Augmented Reality feature, BoatPilot is able to help skippers ride their yachts/boats/ ships more safely.

This is primarily done via the use of AR glasses which allow users to see a host of highly specific visual datasets within their surroundings.

It’s Free: One of the core aspects of this service is that it is free for everyone to use. The interface has been designed from scratch and has been made to incorporate features that are most commonly used by private yachtsmen and small yachting businesses.

Marketing and Advertising: Apart from being a highly useful navigation tool, BoatPilot also serves as a marketplace that provides businesses of any size with an efficient means of reaching their target audience. As per the latest statistical data, the yachting industry is set to scale to an impressive $74.7 billion by 2021.

Offline Usability: According to the white paper, the advertising module used by BoatPilot works even when the user has no internet access.

Market Ready: Instead of being an abstract concept, BoatPilot is an existing, fully functioning product. It can be downloaded onto Android as well as iOS devices from their respective online stores.

Q. Where do you see your company a couple of years from now?

We plan to capture 2.5percent of the charts market by 2019. In the next three years, our project is going to expand into the Caribbean, the US, and Asian markets. All the new technologies like ride sharing, IoT, and augmented reality will appear in the yachting industry very soon, and we want to be a part of the industry evolution.

Leadership | BoatPilot

Artem Borodin, CEO: Foreign exchange markets senior analyst and department assistant director at the brokerage house Currencies Managers LLC, Artem Borodin was responsible for development and implementation of sales strategies, as well as all client communication with potential private and corporate clients for a period of three years.

Mr. Borodin was a senior analyst and senior customer service associate of the Panama Consulting Company. He also carried out business optimization processes for such companies as UPS and Verizon, integrating all company sub-divisions and branches to improve customer experience and lower company expenses. After moving to Panama, Mr. Borodin was fascinated by yachting, which became his hobby and passion. His extensive experience in business management and love for sailing make him the perfect CEO for BoatPilot.

Dmitriy Donskoy, Founder/COO: Yachtsman since 1998, Dmitry Donskoy covered more than 10 thousand miles as a skipper in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic.

Mr. Donskoy has extensive experience in investments in various types of yachting companies (service and exploitation), which has made him an expert in this area and given him a clear understanding of the state of affairs on the market of marine navigation, including its shortcomings and user needs. This gave Mr. Donskoy the opportunity to be at the intersection of IT and marine navigation theory, allowing him to clearly understand both yachtsmen navigation requirements and the needs of yacht-related businesses in convenient and effective advertising tools.

Apart from being a successful yachtsman, Mr. Donskoy has been co-founder, co-owner and director of the charter companies Corsair Adventures and North Sails Montenegro, since 2011. Also, he has been the director of the Montenegro-based investment company Simeon for the last five years. From 2002 to 2008, he was director of Simcon – a company specializing in offshore programming.

“The augmented reality feature at BoatPilot helps skippers to watch all the yacht equipment notifications, actual surroundings data, and the navigations hints in poor visibility conditions that usually occur at night or in bad weather.”