Vortexa

Vortexa is an energy market data and analytics company whose platform tracks global waterborne flows of crude and condensates, clean and dirty petroleum products, liquefied petroleum gas and liquefied natural gas. Data is assembled cargo-by-cargo and vessel-by-vessel so that aggregate figures can be traced back to individual cargoes, vessels and ports, rather than blended from top-down estimates. Coverage extends to grade level, including more than 500 crude and condensate grades, over 250 clean petroleum product classifications, 25-plus dirty petroleum product grades, and LPG cargoes across more than 1,500 gas carriers, with history available back to 2016.

Alongside flow data, the platform covers freight analytics (vessel and tanker availability, fleet utilisation, port congestion) and freight pricing across 90,000-plus active and around 70 million possible port-to-port routes, plus inventories, with the company positioning the combination of freight, inventory and flow signals as leading market indicators. Vortexa also tracks vessels that do not signal ("dark" fleet) as part of its supply and demand picture. Outputs are delivered through a web platform and integrations including an HTTP enterprise data API, a Microsoft Excel add-in and a Python SDK. The company publishes regular analyst commentary on crude, products, freight and regional markets under its insights section, authored by in-house market and freight analysts.

Founding story

Vortexa was founded in 2016 by Fabio Kuhn, who serves as Founder and CEO, together with co-founder Etienne Amic. Kuhn had previously worked at Uniper (formerly E.ON Energy Trading) and spent five years running BP's global trading and analytics technology teams; earlier he had started and sold an internet company, worked as a venture capitalist and traded statistical arbitrage. Amic had run JP Morgan's European energy business and, after its acquisition by Mercuria, sat on Mercuria's executive committee. The founders' stated thesis was that the proliferation of satellite imagery, radar and maritime AIS data combined with cheaper cloud computing and advances in machine learning made it possible to close a long-standing information gap on seaborne oil supply.

Business model

Vortexa sells subscription access to its analytics platform and underlying data to enterprise customers, with sales handled by a direct "contact sales" and demo-booking motion; data is consumed via the platform, an enterprise API, an Excel add-in and a Python SDK.

Commercial access to data and analytics for enterprise clients (platform, API, Excel add-in and SDK); the company reported more than 250 clients and, as of 2020, double-digit percentage month-on-month revenue growth.

Traction

Company-stated figures include 160-plus employees, six global offices, more than 250 clients, more than $3.4 trillion of waterborne energy cargo tracked annually, 700 million-plus data points processed daily, coverage of 90,000-plus active port-to-port routes, and more than $13 million of capital raised as of September 2020.

Latest developments

Vortexa continues to publish frequent market analysis on crude, product and freight markets, including August 2026 pieces on Russian gasoline imports and the diesel ban, clean tanker markets amid conflict, seaborne ethane flow concentration and potential crude supply tightness, and is running the fifth edition of its Innovation Series event programme in 2026 across five locations.