FTV Capital is thrilled to announce the completion of our take-private acquisition of Windward, the leading maritime intelligence platform globally. As a privately held U.S. company, Windward will have greater flexibility to innovate and better access to one of its largest markets. We believe this transaction will unlock significant incremental growth for Windward and accelerate its mission to deliver increased transparency and efficiency across the maritime and supply chain markets.
But why Windward, and why now?
Maritime at a Tipping Point
The maritime industry is the linchpin of global commerce, with more than 80% of world trade carried by sea. It’s also never been more vulnerable. Nearly a quarter of seaborne trade passes through two fragile chokepoints — the Suez and Panama canals — where even short disruptions can trigger billions of dollars in losses. The ongoing rise in vessel-related sanctions, geopolitical conflicts spilling out into international waters, and emerging threats like severed undersea cables all add to the compounding complexity.
Despite these challenges, the maritime sector has historically lacked the sophisticated technologies needed to enhance risk management and mitigate the soaring compliance burden. Advancements in automation and data fusion, however, have unlocked the potential for software to go beyond simple vessel tracking and freight visibility. By synthesizing a multitude of data sources in real time, the right platform can reduce costs, streamline processes, and unveil hidden threats for maritime constituents.
A Category-Defining Leader with Bold Ambitions
In 2010, it was exactly that opportunity that led former naval officers Ami Daniel and Matan Peled to start Windward. Over the last 15 years, Windward has catalyzed a step change in maritime intelligence. Trusted by a wide range of customers – spanning shippers, trading firms, logistics companies, financial institutions, and government organizations – Windward has become mission critical for transforming reactive maritime monitoring into proactive, high-stakes decision-making. The company’s remarkable growth and promising trajectory ultimately led to an IPO on the London Stock Exchange in 2021. Since then, Windward has more than tripled its customer base, maintained strong top-line growth, and expanded its product offering.
But our story starts long before the recent success – we first met Ami in 2017, marking the beginning of an eight-year courtship. Along the way, we observed as Windward’s vision become a reality, grew confident in the team’s ability to both innovate and execute, and recognized the opportunity that could be unlocked in a return to the private markets. In addition, with our partnership and as a newly minted American business, Windward will have boots on the ground in a critical, growing market and can tap into FTV’s vast experience of helping global companies expand in the U.S. This ability to drive accelerated growth added to our excitement in Windward’s future.
Accelerating Innovation Under Private Ownership
Today, Windward leverages a suite of proprietary AI/ML models to aggregate and enrich over 10 billion raw datapoints across 20 distinct sources – everything from AIS signals and satellite imagery to vessel ownership and cargo manifests. This layered approach to data fusion is what underlies the magic; the result is a one-of-a-kind marine engine with capabilities across compliance, security, operations, and supply chain. In other words, Windward’s software can help with everything from identifying anomalous vessel routes that can indicate criminal activity or potential security threats, to minimizing the risk of chartering a vessel that may have breached sanctions during obscure port calls, to predicting the impact of weather disruptions on shipping-related costs. These various use cases extend from a single platform that combines deep-learning algorithms, geospatial analytics, and advanced modeling to deliver actionable insights.
Now, as a private company, Windward can more aggressively pursue the expansion of its cutting edge solutions. The company already introduced the industry’s first GenAI-powered maritime agent, MAI Expert. This virtual agent is trained on Windward’s proprietary models to automate risk screening and integrate seamlessly into the customer’s own workflows. Leveraging the same technology, the company also recently launched a D&D automation solution that streamlines detention and demurrage management for freight forwarders. By enabling agentic workflows and automating labor-intensive tasks with these products, Windward is pioneering a service-as-a-software paradigm shift in its market. With FTV’s investment, Windward will be able to bring this level of innovation into new regions and adjacent industries.
Navigating Forward Together
While this deal represents the next phase of a cherished multi-year relationship for FTV, it is also an extension of our thematic approach to enterprise compliance software and our deep focus on sectors like maritime and supply chain. This continuity will allow us to turn decades of domain expertise into meaningful insights for growing companies like Windward. FTV is committed to offering Windward the best of 27 years of market experience, making strategic commercial introductions to executives in our Global Partner Network®, and supporting the company’s development with our in-house operations team, FTV Propel®.
Alongside Brad Bernstein and Jerome Hershey, I am honored to join Windward’s board of directors and partner with a visionary management team that knows how to deliver. Congratulations to Ami, Matan, and the nearly 200 individuals that make up the Windward family — FTV could not be more excited to turn into the wind and join you on a voyage that will help define the future of maritime.
