A study by the U.S. Fish and Hunting Administration found that in 2022 alone, Americans spent over $144.8 billion on fishing and hunting. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Guided hunts and fishing tours make up a big a part of the industry, but have largely remained offline. Reservations are made by phone and paid by check or money. Mallard Bay wants to vary that.

The Houston-based startup is a marketplace for hunting and fishing consumers who can find and book guided trips the identical way they book a hotel online. Mallard Bay is also a vertical SaaS platform that enables providers themselves to maneuver their facilities online and provide additional services comparable to marketing.

The startup announced a $4.6 million Series A this week led by Soul Venture Partners with participation from existing investor Acadian Capital Ventures and other angel investors. Logan Meaux, co-founder and CEO of Mallard Bay, told TechCrunch that he got here up with the thought for the corporate after a failed hunting trip together with his dad when he was still in college. He thought he had booked a three-day guided duck hunt in Oklahoma. When they showed up, they found that the hunt was double-booked and the one option was to hunt for sooner or later with 13 other people. Meaux never fired a single shot.

At the time, Meaux was working for his father’s startup Waitr, which had raised $24 million in enterprise capital before leaving in 2018, and thought he could start his own company. In 2019, he and two other co-founders started working. The original idea was to easily create a marketplace like Airbnb where people could book guided hunts. When the corporate began asking outfitters and guides what they thought in regards to the idea, they realized they would wish to bring along more people to get guides to sign the contract. This led them to begin creating Guidetech, Mallard Bay’s back office solution for equipment suppliers.

“(Equipment dealers) were open to the idea, they knew they wanted to keep up with the times, but by nature, equipped people are not business owners first and foremost,” Meaux said. “They began as guides, do what they love and construct a business based on passion. (Because) we’re keen about not only the outside and hunting and fishing, but in addition the software space, we sort of brought that knowledge to them in that space to inform them, ‘Hey, if you’re going to make this modification, we’ That’s what guys are for.”

After the corporate invited Toby Brohlin, a hunting influencer, to the platform, more outfitters began signing up. Meux said Brohlin has booked greater than $1 million in gross bookings. The platform as an entire enabled over $6 million in gross bookings in 2023 and is on course to succeed in $30 million to $35 million in 2024.

Despite the corporate’s market size and popularity, Meaux said it was difficult to persuade investors to sign on – the corporate spoke to greater than 270 investors to take part in this round – because investors didn’t understand the category or its potential. The startup also needed to take care of people’s negative perception of hunting and assure potential sponsors that it was not a platform for booking exotic hunting trips to Africa. Another key point the founders desired to share with investors: ethical hunting and fishing actually helps protect nature, which is something the corporate is keen about.

“The only thing about hunting and fishing is being a conservationist,” Meaux said. “It just comes with the territory because ultimately, once our parents have shown us how to do something, we want our children to be able to do the same things. If there are no sustainable practices, sustainable wildlife management, overpopulation is detrimental to wildlife overall.”

While I’m not a hunter myself and only fish occasionally, Mallard Bay’s offering caught my eye because I can’t say I often hear about hunting or fishing within the startup and tech ecosystem. Hunting SaaS is an interesting concept! And it isn’t even the one hunting-related company to boost funding recently: HLRBO, an online platform that makes it easier to seek out hunting land leases, raised a $1 million seed round in February.

What’s also notable is how much Mallard has been in a position to grow since its 2021 launch. Bookings at Mallard Bay are up 600% year-on-year, which is impressive in any category, but notable in a category like hunting and fishing that seems relatively area of interest. As I said earlier, wealth is present in niches – probably because area of interest markets are never as small as they may initially seem.

People within the US spent over $394 billion for outdoor activities – including hunting and fishing, but in addition mountain climbing, bird watching and more – but a lot of these industries still largely operate offline or depend on low-quality and difficult-to-navigate technology. I experienced this last month once I was trying to seek out parking to go on a hike to Sedona, Arizona’s extremely popular Devil’s Bridge Trail. I had to assemble information from multiple blogs to see if I even needed a parking permit.

There are also case studies outside Mallard Bay that show outdoor applications are in high demand from customers. Strava, an application aimed toward runners and cyclists, boasts over 100 million users. Apps that connect individuals who share outdoor activities, comparable to fishing, are also seeing a number of traction. Fishbrain, a social app for fishermen, has recorded over 14 million fish catches in its 12-year history.

As for Meaux, he knows how big this area can be and despite the progress to this point, he believes there is still a number of market to capture and more opportunities to construct into Guidetech.

“I like to say we’ve had some success, but we’re not there yet,” Meaux said. “And that’s what I learned along the way from my dad. In his companies, even after he left, there was still work to be done.”