OrbitMI recently acquired Gale Force, a maritime advisory firm known for its work in weather routing, environmental compliance, and voyage execution support. This follows our earlier acquisition of AI specialist AuQub, and our decision to join the Smart Maritime Council. Taken together, these moves reflect both a growth strategy and a shift in how we think maritime technology should serve the industry.
We’re at a point where the expectations of maritime professionals are changing. Companies are looking for better data, but they’re also looking for systems that help them act on it. That’s the context in which we made these acquisitions.
Until this year, OrbitMI hadn’t made any acquisitions. That was intentional. We’ve long believed that the right way to serve our customers is to focus on interoperability—partnering with others and integrating their capabilities into the OrbitMI platform when it made sense.
That belief hasn’t changed. What has changed is the kind of feedback we’re getting from our customers. They're telling us they want things to be easier to use and faster to implement—and we've determined that building certain capabilities directly into the platform is the best way to deliver that.
Gale Force is a perfect example. Their voyage optimization, environmental compliance, and voyage execution support will now be delivered through Orbit, giving customers access to maritime expertise exactly where they work. Combined with the AI capabilities from AuQub, this means customers get both technical insights and practical guidance without jumping between systems.
Our recent acquisitions have been driven by a desire to add specific expertise—whether in AI or voyage operations—that complements our platform and addresses needs our customers have expressed. In some cases, it makes sense to bring these capabilities directly into the platform, particularly when they align with core workflows and provide immediate value.
As we grow, we’ll continue to evaluate the best ways to meet our customers’ needs—whether that’s through partnerships, integrations, or in-house development. Right now, strengthening our team’s knowledge and our platform’s functionality is the most direct way to deliver value.
There are many ways to build a maritime technology company. We’ve chosen to let customer needs guide how we grow. That’s meant developing new features, building strong partnerships, and in the case of Gale Force, bringing proven capabilities into the platform itself.
What ties all of it together is our focus on enabling smarter decision-making—without making the systems harder to use.
Gale Force joins OrbitMI at a time when both technology and regulation are evolving quickly. Having their team onboard gives us a deeper bench of maritime experience and a broader set of tools to offer customers.
We’re excited about what that means for OrbitMI, and for the direction maritime technology is headed.
If this marks a turning point, it’s not because of the deal itself but because of what we hope to do with it: deliver more of what customers need, in a way that respects the complexity of the work they do.
