Xplor
Business Model & Revenue Strategy
Confidential2025 — Internal
The Positioning

Google Maps
for the ocean.

Google doesn't sell you the restaurant. It doesn't take a cut of your dinner. It simply knows more about every restaurant than anyone else — before you go, and after you leave. That knowledge is worth more than owning any single restaurant ever could be.

xplor is that layer for the global yacht charter market. We own the discovery and the trust. The transaction belongs to the industry.

"xplor controls the before and the after. The middle — the booking, the contract, the commission — belongs to the brokers. That's not a compromise. It's the strategy."
The Market

A €10 billion industry
built on opacity.

The global superyacht charter market generates approximately €10 billion per year. It runs almost entirely on personal relationships, private pricing, and institutional knowledge held by a small number of established brokerages.

There are no verified client reviews. Anywhere. A first-time charterer cannot read what it was actually like to spend a week aboard a specific vessel. They rely entirely on a broker's word — the same broker who earns income on the booking.

This opacity has persisted because no platform has had both the data and the neutrality to change it. Until now.

Annual charter market
€10B
Yachts in xplor database
12,757
Verified review platforms
0
The Structure

Before. Middle. After.
We own two of three.

Before
xplor
The client discovers the yacht. They search by size, region, type, budget, and eventually by reputation. All of that discovery happens on xplor — the most comprehensive, searchable charter fleet database in the world. This is the layer xplor owns permanently.
Middle
The Industry
The booking, the contract, the APA, the commission split. Central Agent holds the owner relationship. Co-broker represents the client. MYBA standards apply. xplor is not present. xplor does not charge. This is deliberate — it is what makes every broker in the industry comfortable with xplor's existence.
After
xplor
The charter completes. The client submits a verified review — confirmed by xplor's AIS integration proving the yacht was in the stated location on the stated dates. That review is permanent, public, and irrefutable. No other platform can offer this. This layer compounds in value every single day.
The Moat

Verified reviews.
Confirmed by GPS.

Charter reviews that cannot be manipulated. Every review on xplor is submitted by a confirmed charterer — verified against booking records after the charter end date has passed. Unverified submissions do not publish.

For yachts with registered IMO or MMSI numbers, xplor cross-references reviews against AIS vessel tracking data — confirming the yacht was in the stated location on the stated dates. These reviews carry an AIS Verified badge. Fleet-wide AIS verification is being rolled out through 2026 as vessel data is enrolled.

"No other platform is building this. Confirmed charterer. Confirmed vessel. Confirmed location. The trust layer the industry has never had."

For central agents, this is both an opportunity and an incentive. A yacht with verified five-star reviews commands a premium rate and fills its calendar faster. Claiming and protecting that review profile becomes valuable — which is the commercial mechanism that converts free listing into paid presence.

The Broker Strategy

Central agents first.
Always.

The central agent has an exclusive contract with the owner. They earn a guaranteed share of every charter — whether they find the client directly or a co-broker brings the enquiry. They are structurally incentivised by distribution, not threatened by it.

Central Agent

"More distribution at zero cost to your earnings. Whether clients book direct or via co-broker, your central agency position is protected. You earn either way. And your verified review profile on xplor becomes your most valuable marketing asset."

Co-Broker

"Comprehensive fleet access. 12,000+ yachts, searchable by every meaningful parameter. Find the right vessel for your client faster, then reach the CA directly. Standard co-brokerage applies. Your client relationship is yours."

xplor never acts as a broker. Never takes a share of earnings. Never routes enquiries away from the listing CA. Never sells leads to competing brokers. The broker community trusts xplor because the product structurally cannot do any of these things — it is not a booking platform.

Revenue Architecture

Four streams.
Three phases.

xplor's revenue model is structured in phases that match the maturity of the platform. Early revenue comes from visibility fees. As traffic compounds, referral fees become the primary driver. The transaction layer activates last, once broker trust is fully established.

01
Phase 1 — Now
Visibility Subscriptions

Brokers and CAs pay for enhanced listing placement, analytics, and direct contact links. Free tier gives full search visibility. Paid tier gives presence advantage. This is the Rightmove model — pay to be found, not for leads.

Rightmove never sold leads. It sold visibility. Agents paid to be findable. The leads came as a consequence.

€99–499/mo · Freemium to Agency
02
Phase 2 — Near Term
Verified Profile Claims

As the verified review layer builds, CAs pay to claim, manage, and protect their yacht's reputation profile. Respond to reviews, add verified media, access analytics on profile views and enquiry conversion.

The Google Business Profile model. Free to exist. Paid to manage and protect.

Per-yacht subscription · Bundled with Pro tier
03
Phase 2 — Near Term
Referral / CPC

Qualified enquiries — scored by session behaviour, verified email, and budget-to-rate matching — are routed to the CA. A referral fee is charged per qualified introduction, not per booking. The CA pays only when something real lands in their inbox.

The Skyscanner model. Traffic fee, not transaction fee. No booking required.

€300–800 per qualified introduction
04
Phase 3 — Scale
Transaction Attribution

When a charter confirms that xplor demonstrably introduced — traceable via redirect URL attribution — a platform fee is charged as a percentage of charter value. Requires formal broker agreement and trust established over phases 1 and 2.

The Google Hotels model. xplor charges for the verified introduction. Never for the booking itself.

2–4% of charter value on attributed bookings
Revenue Model

Interactive projections.

Adjust the sliders to model different scenarios. The defaults reflect a realistic Year 1 position. Drag the transaction sliders to see what even modest market penetration means at scale.

Addressable brokers400
Charter brokerages actively marketing online
Free → Paid conversion5%
B2B SaaS benchmark: 3–8%
Avg revenue per user / mo€160
Blended Standard €99 · Pro €249 · Agency €499
Monthly visitors8,000
Organic + content-driven search traffic
Enquiry rate3%
% of visitors who submit a charter enquiry
Qualified lead rate30%
% of enquiries that pass qualification scoring
Referral fee per lead€500
Fee charged per qualified CA introduction
Attributed charters / yr100
Confirmed charters with traceable xplor introduction
Avg charter value€80k
Weekly gross charter fee
Platform fee3%
% of charter value on attributed bookings
SaaS ARR
€38k
20 brokers
Referral ARR
€432k
864 leads/yr
Transaction ARR
€240k
100 charters/yr
Visibility Subscriptions€38k (5%)
Referral / CPC€432k (61%)
Transaction Attribution€240k (34%)
Total ARR
€710k
€59k / month
SaaS insufficient — referral layer needed
Referral layer provides meaningful buffer
Transaction layer — this is a serious business
Market Context

Even 1% of the market
is a serious business.

The table below shows what different levels of market penetration mean for the transaction layer alone — before SaaS or referral revenue. The global market runs approximately 125,000 charters per year at an average of €80k per week.

Market shareCharters / yrTransaction ARR @ 3%FairSeas status
0.1%125€300kDormant
0.5%625€1.5MActive
1%1,250€3MActive
3%3,750€9MActive
5%6,250€15MActive
Positioning Clarity

What xplor is not.

As important as what xplor is, is what it deliberately is not. These are permanent commitments — not current limitations.

Never
A broker or brokerage
A booking platform
An earnings participant
A lead auction or bidding system
A replacement for brokers
A disruptor of the CA model
Always
The global discovery layer
The verified reputation layer
Neutral infrastructure
Broker-aligned, not broker-competing
The before and the after
Built for the industry, not around it