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Windward sold to US capital investor with expansion plans
AI-driven maritime intelligence provider Windward has agreed to a takeover bid from FTV Capital that values the company at US$270M
US-based FTV Capital has made a successful bid to acquire UK-listed maritime intelligence provider Windward.
The acquisition will see the San Francisco-headquartered capital investment firm backing maritime data and analytics services as global seaborne trade grows and regulatory regimes on shipping tighten.
Windward co-founder and chief executive Ami Daniel announced the proposed acquisition of the company by the growth equity investment firm FTV Capital on 30 December 2024.
The cash acquisition is by Octopus UK Bidco, a wholly-owned subsidiary of FTV VIII and its affiliates that was specifically created for the transaction.
The acquisition values the entire share capital of Windward at approximately £216M (US$270M) and the offer price represents a premium of around 47% to the closing price per Windward share of £1.46 on the latest practicable date.
“Windward has built a best-in-class maritime AI-based analytics platform spanning use cases across risk, compliance, trading and the supply chain and delivering tangible value to its growing blue-chip customer base worldwide,” said FTV Capital managing partner Brad Bernstein.
“As global seaborne trade expands, regulatory regimes tighten and supply chain pressures mount, the need for advanced maritime intelligence and visibility has become imperative for global organisations to effectively operate and manage risk in an increasingly complex landscape.”
FTV Capital said the acquisition represents an opportunity for enhanced data and AI-led insight across the maritime ecosystem.
The company said it sees an opportunity to accelerate Windward’s continued expansion from its current market position within the maritime sector, into a broader supply chain analytics provider, and plans to support the development of Windward’s future product roadmap.
“For this, Windward may require investment, which could reduce profitability in the short to medium term, but should build the strong operational foundations required to support its next phase of growth, scale its platform globally and drive sustainable long-term value,” FTV Capital said in a statement.
Mr Daniel said the investment by FTV Capital would enable Windward to “build upon our first mover advantage in maritime generative AI through accelerated innovation and greater market reach.” This would include greater penetration into the US market.
Earlier in December, Windward secured a continuous feed of automatic identification system (AIS) data from S&P Global Market Intelligence through to 2030.
It also partnered with Dataminr to integrate real-time AI-generated insights into its own maritime AI platform, thus enriching existing information with early identification of critical threat events.
In Q4 2024, the partnership identified a GPS jamming event in the Pacific region, which resulted in what appeared to be a 218% surge in ship-to-ship operations, but was actually false information.
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