Kpler

Kpler is the backbone of global trade intelligence—and they just raised $1 billion to prove it. Sixth Street led this growth equity round, and if you know Sixth Street, you know they don't write $1 billion checks to companies without serious moat. Kpler has spent 15 years building proprietary datasets that combine satellite vessel tracking, AI models, and real-time market intelligence across energy, commodities, shipping, and defense. This isn't a startup pivoting every six months—this is infrastructure that powers the physical economy.

Here's why it matters: 90 percent of global trade moves by ship. The commodities, the energy, the raw materials that keep everything running—they're all floating on vessels tracked by Kpler. Their platform processes physical trade signals into actionable market views, supply and demand forecasts, and decision tools for chartering and trading. They've got AI models purpose-built on over a decade of proprietary data, forecasting and detecting with precision that makes traditional analytics look like reading tea leaves. Whether you're a commodity trader, a shipping company, a government agency, or a financial institution, Kpler is the pipe through which real-time trade flows become competitive advantage.

They cover the full stack—agriculture, metals, dry containers, gas, power, oils, chemicals, ship tracking, defense intelligence, risk and compliance. That's not a product line. That's a monopoly on information. And they're just getting started.