Ocean and airfreight benchmarking and market intelligence platform startup Xeneta AS announced today that it has acquired air freight data analysts company CLIVE Data Services for an undisclosed price.

The deal comes seven months after Xeneta announced it was partnering with CLIVE B.V. to integrate its “dynamic load factor” and capacity analyses into Xeneta’s market analytics platform.

Founded in 2011, CLIVE offers software applications designed to improve commercial decision-making. Focused solely on the air cargo industry, the company has a design principle that all its applications should be as simple as Google LLC’s and as pretty as Apple Inc.’s.

CLIVE uses weekly analyses of the global air cargo market to provide clients with unique and fresh performance indicators on how the industry is trending. The company argues that the way the air cargo industry has measured its performance has been grossly misleading and harmful to its growth prospects and has hurt the economics of airline performance. Hence, CLIVE decided to fix it.

The company’s data analysis is based upon flight and shipment data sourced directly from cargo airlines – what they call the “dynamic load factor.” It’s said to be dynamic because it takes both the weight and the volume utilization of air cargo shipments into account when assessing a plane’s air cargo load factor.

With COVID-19, the global freight market has been through what Xeneta describes as its most “dynamic period ever” in the last two years. The company says that has heightened demand for more timely data to help companies deal with this volatile time in an informed manner.

“We want our customers to have the best and most timely global ocean and air freight data trends,” Xeneta Chief Executive Officer Patrik Berglund, said in a statement. “The unique insights and timelines of CLIVE’s air freight data make it a great addition to our freight data offering.”

Berglund added that with the acquisition of CLIVE, the combined data services and industry expertise will make Xeneta second to none in providing clear insights into the global freight markets.

Xeneta was last in the news in June when it raises $28.5 million in a Series C round on a valuation of $130 million. Prior to the acquisition, CLIVE was part of Biarri Pty. Ltd., an Australian commercial mathematics company.

Image: Xeneta