In International Shipping News 01/05/2015
An investor consortium including one of Asia’s richest businessmen and a former chief executive of Thomson Reuters Corp. has taken a stake in Windward, valuing the ship-tracking startup at about $100 million.
Among new investors in the Tel Aviv firm are Li Ka-shing’s Horizons Ventures and Angelic Ventures, the family office of former Thomson Reuters CEO Thomas Glocer. The $10.8 million investment for a roughly 10% stake follows previous funding rounds in 2011 and 2013.
Windward takes information about movements of ships around the world and uses a database of historical voyages to predict patterns of global trade and highlight unusual movements.
The company, which was founded by two former officers of the Israeli Navy, says it will use the proceeds to launch a product that caters to Wall Street. Big banks, hedge funds and commodity-trading firms use information about seaborne commodity shipments to make bets on prices in raw-materials markets, such as oil and iron ore. Shifts in supply-and-demand trends often ripple through financial markets.
The company has already been offering its technology to clients in the security, intelligence and law-enforcement sectors.
Windward’s competitors include Bloomberg LP and Reuters.
Mr. Ka-shing made his fortune in an array of industries ranging from ports and shipping to plastics and retail. Horizons is known for prior investments in companies including Skype, Spotify AB and Facebook Inc. Angelic Ventures has invested in financial-technology and data-analysis companies such as Bitcoin payment provider Coinbase Inc.
Horizons Ventures will take a seat on Windward’s board. Mr. Glocer will join the company’s advisory board.
“Anyone can get a New York Stock Exchange quote,” Mr. Glocer said. “The hard stuff to get are these deep-in-the-weeds data.”
