Uk based Vortexa, an analytics platform designed for the energy and shipping sectors, has successfully closed a Series C funding round, securing $34 million in fresh capital to feed its ongoing expansion and innovation efforts. Led by investment funds managed by Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital,the funding round was in collaboration with existing investors including Notion Capital, Monashees, Metaplanet, FJ Labs, and Communitas Capital.
The Series C funding brings the total capital raised by Vortexa to over $60 million since its inception in 2016. Despite the challenging fundraising landscape for tech companies, Vortexa’s latest round was significantly oversubscribed, thanks to the company’s innovative ideas and effort to reshape the energy market.
What is Series C funding?
Series C funding, is a funding round with the aim of getting a company ready to be acquired, go public on the stock market or undergo significant expansion, possibly through acquisition. It’s usually the last stage of fundraising a startup goes through, although some businesses pursue additional rounds to raise more capital.
Companies that go to this round of investments already have proof of their success and are valued at about $118 million. While previous rounds of funding use investment money to start making money and carve out their space in the market, Series C funding funnels large amounts of cash into profitable businesses to scale them up as quickly as possible and get a fast return for the investors.
Businesses that seek out Series C funding are not startups anymore. They are mature entities, but still young, with a dedicated customer base and strong brand recognition. Private equity firms, hedge funds and investment banks often contribute to this round of funding due to the low risk, proven business plan and the chance to back a company that could grow to be worth billions. The average Series C investment in 2020 was about $59 million.
Fabio Kuhn, Founder and CEO of Vortexa, expressed gratitude for the support and confidence shown by investors. “Despite one of the toughest fundraising environments for tech companies in the recent past, this funding round was significantly oversubscribed,” said Kuhn. He also highlighted the company’s impressive growth, stating that Vortexa has “doubled its valuation” since the Series B funding round in 2021 and is now “near profitability.”
Lincoln Isetta, Managing Director of Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital, hailed Vortexa’s growth and capital efficiency, noting the increasing demand for high-quality, real-time data and analytics in the complex international energy and freight markets.
Isetta believes that Vortexa is at the forefront of technological leadership in these markets, with many of the world’s largest and most sophisticated energy and freight market participants relying on Vortexa’s solutions for crucial business decisions.
In April 2023, Vortexa sold a stake to US venture capital firm Communitas Capital for an undisclosed sum. The strategic partnership with Communitas Capital and the collaboration with UK-based Energy Aspects in March 2023 further solidify Vortexa’s position in the industry. The partnership with Energy Aspects aims to provide a greater understanding of short-term market dynamics by combining energy commodity data and intelligence with cargo tracking analytics.
Vortexa, headquartered in London and with offices in Singapore, Houston, New York, Geneva, and the United Arab Emirates, employs a team of 120 experts. The platform provides comprehensive data on crude oil, refined products, LPG, and LNG across all vessel classes.
With its latest funding injection, Vortexa is well-positioned to continue its mission to open, connect, and optimize the energy world, leveraging cutting-edge technology and industry expertise. The company’s commitment to sustainability and market efficiency makes it a key player in the evolving landscape of global energy markets.
The energy industry, traditionally known for its complexity and opacity, experienced a seismic shift in recent years, driven by information. Technological breakthroughs, such as reusable rocket launching, lower-cost satellites, cloud-scale computational power, and a step-change in machine learning modeling, paved the way for unprecedented access to information about the state and flow of energy on Earth. Recognizing this inflection point in the industry, Fabio Kuhn founded Vortexa with a mission to open, connect, and optimize the energy world.
Vortexa’s journey began with a commitment to providing unprecedented access to global waterborne oil and gas operations data, supporting market efficiency and sustainability. Over the years, Vortexa has played a pivotal role in the energy landscape, offering its trusted data and analytics to some of the smartest and most successful physical and financial energy traders and analysts. Its innovative platform empowers users to identify and capture opportunities in the market before others, placing Vortexa at the forefront of technological leadership in the industry.
