Billion Dollar Investment for Trade Data Company Kpler

Investment firm Sixth Street has paid more than $1 billion for a minority stake in Brussels-based physical trade intelligence data and analytics company Kpler. The money will be used to expand further into adjacent markets, and accelerate new product development.

Kpler was founded in 2014, initially as a specialist in LNG cargo tracking, and has grown into a global provider of trade intelligence across commodity and shipping markets via two complementary platforms, Kpler and MarineTraffic. Physical asset data is collected from a wide variety of sources including proprietary and third-party, and combined with expert analysis to deliver real-time insights to customers across energy, dry bulk, power, maritime transport and defence markets.

Kpler's existing management will remain majority owners of the business, and existing investor Insight Partners will remain a shareholder, rolling a portion of its original investment, while another investor, Five Arrows, will exit. Kpler founders François Cazor and Jean Maynier said in a statement: 'For more than a decade, Kpler has been on a mission to bring greater transparency to global trade and empower customers to make smarter decisions... We are delighted with the support we have received from Five Arrows and Insight Partners over the past four years and look forward to working with Sixth Street in the next stage of our journey. Our vision remains unchanged: to build one of the world's most distinctive global trade intelligence platforms.'

Web sites: www.sixthstreet.com and www.kpler.com .