Norwegian e-navigation specialist Navtor has received a majority investment from Silicon Valley private equity firm Accel-KKR (AKKR)
AKKR said it believes the future bodes well for companies like Navtor and believes the maritime e-navigation industry is “on a multi-year technological expansion” due to new regulations, an increased focus on safety and ESG goals, and advances in technology.
Navtor head of the European office Maurice Hernandez said the continuing digitisation of fleets makes Navtor’s future look promising.
In Q3 2020, Navtor released version 5.3 of its NavStation route optimisation workstation working with Weathernews Inc to integrate weather services with optimum ship routeing into its digital chart table NavStation.
He said "Pairing Navtor’s mission-critical software and the deep domain expertise of its management team with AKKR’s know-how in accelerating growth in software companies will lead to exciting outcomes for the marketplace and customers."
AKKR partnered with Crescent Capital Group LP via its European Specialty Lending strategy on financing for this investment.
Navtor chief commercial officer and co-founder Børge Hetland said "With Accel-KKR’s backing, we see tremendous opportunities to take Navtor to the forefront of our industry, and to further serve our customers with a total ship operations platform – from navigation excellence to fleet optimisation and crew performance. Specifically, we are very excited to be working with Accel-KKR given their breadth of software-specific and M&A capabilities to accelerate Navtor’s top-line growth."
Navtor specialises in cloud-based e-navigation software including electronic navigational charts, digital maritime publications, route optimisation and fleet management across an integrated platform.
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