Our History
Established over 20 years ago, Pole Star was the first company to track a vessel live throughout its journey, making satellite-based GPS ship and proxy cargo tracking a reality – a truly disruptive technological innovation that changed the maritime sector forever.
Since our inception, we have continued to diversify and innovate. Today, Pole Star is a maritime technology leader, providing a wide range of solutions for all areas of the maritime industry.
View our corporate timeline to see how we have developed over the years.
1998 Pole Star Was Founded
Pole Star Space Applications was established in 1998 at the peak of the dot.com revolution to disrupt the maritime industry.
Pole Star was founded in 1998 with our launch of the first real-time tracking solution in the maritime industry, Purplefinder.
1998
Pole Star was founded in 1998 with our launch of the first real-time tracking solution in the maritime industry, Purplefinder.
2006
Opened our first international office in Hong Kong, initiating the process of becoming a global company.
2009
Began operating Data Centres for flags, consisting of end-to-end LRIT services and management of LRIT conformance tests. We now operate DCs on behalf of over 50 flag administrations, monitoring more than 20,000 ships.
2009
Expanded with an office in Panama, allowing our Customer Support team to operate 24/7/365, with all major time zones accounted for.
2011
Ranked in the Sunday Times International Track 100 for fastest growing companies, based on our sales growth over the previous 3 years.
2012
Merged with Absolute Software and Absolute Maritime Tracking Services, combining our expertise with their flag clients and credentials in fisheries management to provide satellite-based monitoring and security-related services to more than 35,000 vessels – half the world’s international fleet.
2014
Opened our Singapore office, with a focus on sales in the Asia-Pacific region.
2014
Launched PurpleTRAC, our first solution for the financial markets sector, incorporating our existing tracking technology into a streamlined vessel monitoring, sanctions screening, and compliance service.
2015
Launched our highly configurable, extensible, and easy-to-use cloud application platform, built upon a powerful open API, using enterprise-grade cloud infrastructure.
2016
Won runner-up for the Monetary Authority Singapore (MAS) FinTech Award, presented at the Singapore FinTech Festival with a prize of $50,000. The award pushed Pole Star into the spotlight, generating over 500 enquiries from financial institutions and regulators.
2017
Launched our tri-mode class B vessel tracking solution, Hali Iridium, with Iridium and Weatherdock, combining terrestrial and satellite AIS data with satellite M2M technology to enable small craft visibility anywhere in the world.
2017
Won the Microsoft BizSpark+ Award at the Citi Tech for Integrity Challenge for our simple and streamlined automation of complex risk management and compliance procedures.
2017
Listed in the 100 innovative RegTech companies that every financial institution should know about in 2018 for providing technology solutions that address the challenges and opportunities of dealing with regulatory issues.
2018
Launched our Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) solution, an integrated data management platform for governments and those associated with Homeland Security to safeguard their maritime domain and ensure the success of coastal surveillance operations.
2018
Won the Shield in the Cloud Innovation Challenge Award for our best-in-class technology that combats global and corporate corruption, while promoting good governance through sanctions compliance screening for organisations with exposures to shipping and cargoes.
2019
Partnered with Dow Jones Risk & Compliance, enabling users of Dow Jones’ trade compliance solution ExImCheck to access additional intelligence for vessel screening and monitoring via PurpleTRAC, in an effort to set new standards for guarding against financial crime in maritime trade.
2019
Launched our PSP Tracking app, providing customers with greater working flexibility by integrating services from their central desktop application on their smartphones and tablet devices.
2019
Pole Star’s sanctions compliance and risk management service, PurpleTRAC, became available to corporates on the Networked Trade Platform (NTP) in Singapore, enabling end-to-end digital trade for participants across the trade value chain.
2020
Partnered with global trade finance technology provider TradeIX, bringing PurpleTRAC to the Marco Polo Network and advancing cross-border trade compliance through automated vessel sanctions screening.
2020
Opened our most recent office in St. Petersburg, Florida, enabling us to deliver exceptional support and service to our US clients.
2020
Launched our new branding and website to reflect our current position as a leading maritime data provider, facilitating decision-making across the large and diverse maritime framework.
2020
Launched a hybrid solution combining our PurpleTRAC regulatory technology with our Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) solution through a single linkout to offer users the highest possible visibility of their marine assets.
2020
Partnered with carbon accounting solutions provider, CarbonChain, enabling industry access to ESG-based compliance to tackle rising greenhouse gas emissions in shipping.
2021
Received significant growth investment from Wavecrest Growth Partners & Abry Partners to accelerate innovation into disruptive AI, ML, and distributed ledger technologies.
2021
Won the GTR Leaders in Trade for Sustainability Award for our joint ESG-based solution with CarbonChain, which leverages our vessel screening technology to track the environmental impact of shipping via emissions calculations on over 76,000 vessels within PurpleTRAC.
2021
Won the Global Finance Outstanding Innovations in Trade Finance Award for our joint solutions with the Marco Polo Network, which enable the advancement of cross-border trade compliance, while streamlining maritime transactional processes and securing sensitive data.
2021
Acquired a controlling stake in Vasanda, a London-based startup in sustainability risk screening using real-time, empirical impact data, to strengthen Pole Star’s sustainability screening offering.
2021
Won Best Solution for Trade & Sanctions in the 2021 Regulation Asia Awards for Excellence for our regulatory technology, PurpleTRAC, which streamlines and automates sanctions and sustainability risk intelligence.
2022
Launched the new Defense line of business focused on mission-critical maritime surveillance, safety, conformance, and screening solutions for governments.
2023
Acquired StratumFive Group. StratumFive has been trusted to provide mission-critical solutions to the global shipping community for over a decade.
2023
Incorporated Podium5 solution in to our suite of products. Podium5 brings together fleet monitoring, regulatory compliance, performance analytics and voyage optimisation into one uniquely flexible platform.
Today
Today we are a still-expanding and multi-award winning global company, with a focus on securing maritime domains and mitigating risk within the world of maritime trade. Our goals are to further streamline the complex operational procedures required by the maritime industry, by automating its currently manual and highly paper-based processes.