Data and market intelligence firm Kpler has acquired a 100% stake in Marine Traffic, a Greek company that develops and operates a widely used maritime service and ship tracking application. The acquisition is part of a dual deal that sees the acquisition of Fleet Mon by Marine Traffic, which also specializes in ship tracking and shipping analytics. According to “Kathimerini”Marine Traffic has been rated particularly satisfactorily, and as part of the agreement, management will continue to be managed by its managing director, Dimitris Memo, while he and company co-founder Dimitris Lekkas will also acquire shares in now parent company Kpler.

Founded in 2007 in Athens, Marine Traffic has become an integral part of the shipping industry by making ship tracking data and analytics widely available. Its turnover last year reached 20 million euros, while more than 150 people work in Greece and abroad.

Vessel traffic monitoring is at the core of its activities. Based on a database collected by a network of AIS (Automatic Identification System) coastal receiving stations, complemented by satellite receivers, it applies algorithms and integrates additional data sources to provide shipping, trade and supply chains with reliable shipping information. Its main offices are located in the UK, Greece and Singapore and it has a global reach supporting millions of service users.

Kpler CEO François Casor said his company has so far focused on tracking cargo rather than ships, but it can now combine cargo and shipping information on a single platform. “I am very proud of what Marine Traffic has achieved over the years and excited about what we can still achieve as part of Kpler along with the Fleet Mon team,” said Marine Traffic CEO Dimitris Memos in a related statement. “The increasingly interconnected world of shipping needs more digital tools and better analytics, and we will continue to innovate in this direction.” Marine Traffic has become more widely known, i.e. outside the shipping market, in part as a reference website for major news events taking place at sea, from the MH370 crash to the 2019 Gulf of Oman tanker explosions in the Suez Canal.