Voly began as a simple way to manage crew expenses. Now it offers major areas of vessel management
News
Voly acquires Oceanskies, uniting yacht crew employment, payroll and compliance under one platform
Fourth acquisition since 2023 takes the number of crew administered under the Voly umbrella beyond 10,000 and consolidates Voly’s position as the category leader in superyacht software.
Voly, the market-leading software, payments and crew-services platform for the global superyacht industry, today announced the acquisition of Oceanskies, the specialist yacht crew employment, payroll and registration business.
Oceanskies administers the employment of approximately 5,000 crew across owners and management companies, operating from Guernsey, Jersey, Malta and the UK. Brought together with Voly Crew, it creates the most complete crew offering in yachting for employment, payroll, payments, hours-of-rest and compliance from a single provider.
Transaction highlights
- Voly is the market leading platform for superyacht management, covering financial management, accounting and payments, charter and APA administration, refit and project management, crew employment and payroll, and crew compliance.
- Oceanskies is its fourth acquisition since 2023, following Pinpoint Works (February 2023), Voyonic Crewing, now Voly Crew (September 2024) and Workrest (December 2024).
- The acquisition takes the number of crew administered under the Voly umbrella to more than 10,000.
- Consolidates Voly’s leadership in superyacht crew employment and payroll, bringing Oceanskes together with Voly Crew.
Consolidating an under-digitised industry
The global superyacht fleet spends an estimated €30–40bn a year on building, operating, refitting and chartering, yet specialist software still reaches under a fifth of the world’s yachts. The majority of yachts are still run on spreadsheets and a number of single-purpose tools. With the regulatory burden on owners, managers and captains; MLC, STCW, anti-money-laundering rules, IMO and EU emissions reporting, growing each year to beyond what spreadsheets can carry.
Voly’s response has been to build a singular platform capable of housing all of the management requirements of a superyacht in one system. Digitisation, and increasingly AI automation, of processes and workflows are a central pillar of this solution.
“We have long admired what Duncan and the Oceanskies team have built,” said Ian Flanagan, Founder and Chief Executive of Voly. “Their expertise in crew employment, payroll and registration is exceptional, and they join a Voly Crew team that already carries decades of experience. Between us, I do not believe there is better knowledge anywhere in yachting. Together we can build on the foundations Voly Crew and Oceanskies have each laid and move a great deal faster than either of us could alone.”
“I am immensely proud of what my fellow directors, our team and I have built at Oceanskies over thirteen years,” said Duncan Swanson, Co-Founder of Oceanskies. “This feels like exactly the right moment to join a larger business. Our clients get the continuity and the specialist attention they have always had, and now the technology and investment to go with it.”
Continuity first, then capability
Voly was clear that clients should expect no disruption in the near term, with enhancements following as integration progresses.
“Nothing changes for Oceanskies’ clients today,” Flanagan said. “What changes is what becomes possible tomorrow — crew employment and registration expertise backed by a genuine technology platform, and one company that an owner or manager can hold accountable for the whole experience rather than one slice of it.”
“This is another step in consolidating a fragmented industry into one dashboard and one solution that serves every part of the yachting ecosystem,” Flanagan continued. “We have further acquisitions in the pipeline, and the goal has not changed: one login, backed by great people and deep domain expertise, is exactly what this market needs.”
Investor perspective
“Voly is a category leader in a vertical that is mission-critical, highly regulated and still remarkably under-served by technology,” said Tom Matthews, Partner at Magenta Partners. “This is the fourth acquisition we have supported since investing, and the pattern each time has been the same: a well-run specialist business, a clear product fit, and an integration playbook that works. Oceanskies is the most significant of the four. It brings a high-quality recurring revenue base, deepens an already strong position in crew services, and takes Voly close to a proposition no competitor in yachting can match.”
Voly remains committed to the ethos that has guided its growth: working closely with clients and crew to build the best possible solution for everyone in the yachting ecosystem. “With more than 10,000 crew now administered under the Voly umbrella, continued investment in our crew solutions, in time, people and money, is an absolute priority,” Flanagan added.
About Voly
Voly is the market-leading software, payments and crew-services platform for the global superyacht industry, purpose-built for the captains, crew, owners, family offices and management companies responsible for running the world’s yachts. Combining multi-currency yacht accounting, treasury and regulatory reporting, integrated global payments and foreign exchange, charter and APA administration, refit and project management, and crew employment, payroll and compliance in a single platform, Voly gives management companies the tools to enhance their own proposition to owners. Founded in 2016 and headquartered near Manchester in the UK, with offices in Guernsey, Southampton, Malta, Barcelona and Fort Lauderdale, Voly technology is used on more than 1,700 vessels worldwide and the group employs a team of over 200 people. Voly is backed by private equity firm Magenta Partners.
About Oceanskies
Founded in 2013 by Duncan Swanson, Adrian Ogier and Tom Becker, Oceanskies is a specialist provider of yacht and aircraft documentation, registration, and crew employment and payroll services, with offices in Guernsey, Jersey, Malta, the UK and Dubai.
About Magenta Partners
Magenta Partners is a UK private equity firm investing in small and mid-sized businesses. It acquired its controlling interest in Voly in February 2021 and has supported each of the group’s subsequent acquisitions.
Media contact
Rachel Lines
Head of Brand and Partnerships, Voly
[email protected]
