Blackdot adds Lloyd's List maritime data to Videris

Blackdot Solutions has integrated maritime data from Lloyd's List Intelligence into its Videris investigation platform, bringing vessel information into the same system as other intelligence sources used in investigations.

The integration adds vessel tracking, ownership information and risk indicators from Lloyd's List Intelligence to Videris, which public and private sector investigators use for open-source intelligence work. Users can now view maritime data alongside corporate records, adverse media, publicly available social media and dark web content in one platform.

The change is intended to support investigations in which shipping activity intersects with sanctions, compliance checks and financial crime inquiries. In those cases, investigators often need to move from a vessel to the people, companies and financial relationships connected to it, a process that can involve multiple databases and manual cross-checking.

Maritime risk

The addition comes as authorities place greater scrutiny on shipping networks linked to sanctions evasion and other high-risk trade. In such cases, investigators often examine not only the ship itself but also the ownership chains, management structures, financiers and intermediaries around it.

According to the companies, some vessels involved in higher-risk trades use tactics designed to obscure their activity and control. These can include AIS manipulation, fraudulent vessel identities, flag changes and layers of opaque corporate structures, making it harder to establish who is ultimately responsible for a vessel's operations.

That has increased the value of combining specialist maritime intelligence with broader corporate and open-source material. Linking those data points in one environment allows investigators to trace connections between vessels and associated entities without switching between separate tools.

Stuart Clarke, Chief Executive Officer of Blackdot Solutions, said: "In financial crime and sanctions investigations, the risk rarely sits with the vessel itself - it lies in the ownership structures, individuals and networks behind it, which are often deliberately obscured. Until now, much of the relevant maritime data has sat separately from the corporate records, adverse media and other intelligence sources investigators rely on, making those connections difficult and time-consuming to establish. By integrating Lloyd's List Intelligence's data into Videris, we are helping customers understand maritime risk in the context of everything else they know, enabling them to identify and evidence the links that matter faster and with greater confidence."

Investigation workflows

Videris is used by Financial Intelligence Units, law enforcement bodies, financial services compliance teams and corporate risk professionals. According to Blackdot, the platform supports entity mapping, risk analysis and structured reporting with audit trails.

The Lloyd's List Intelligence dataset is intended to extend those workflows into maritime cases by allowing users to assess trade-related and vessel-related information within the same investigation process. That could be relevant for enhanced due diligence reviews as well as broader corporate and financial crime investigations in which shipping activity forms part of the case.

Lloyd's List Intelligence supplies maritime data and analysis to users in shipping, trade, insurance, finance, law, compliance, logistics and government. It said the partnership reflects rising demand for timely and accurate intelligence in a more complex sanctions and trading environment.

Waqas Samad, Chief Executive Officer of Lloyd's List Intelligence, said: "Maritime risk is evolving rapidly, driven by changing sanctions, deceptive shipping practices, increasingly complex trading patterns and geopolitical instability. Reliable analysis depends on having access to accurate, timely maritime intelligence underpinned by deep industry expertise. Embedding our data into Videris will make that intelligence available to a wider range of investigators at the point where they need it, helping organisations incorporate a trusted maritime perspective into their investigations and respond more effectively to emerging compliance and financial crime risks."

Wider pressure

The deal highlights how specialist data providers and investigation software groups are increasingly linking datasets that were previously held in separate systems. For compliance teams and investigators, maritime intelligence has often sat apart from corporate registry data, media checks and other sources commonly used in due diligence and sanctions screening.

Bringing those sources together matters because shipping investigations frequently require an understanding of both physical vessel movements and the legal or financial structures behind them. A vessel may be one visible part of a network that includes shell companies, managers, insurers, counterparties and beneficial owners spread across jurisdictions.

Blackdot, based in Cambridge, markets Videris to government agencies, law enforcement, financial institutions and large companies. Lloyd's List Intelligence is part of a broader maritime information business serving commercial and public sector users involved in seaborne trade, insurance, legal work and compliance.

The combined offering is intended to give investigators a more direct route from a vessel of interest to the entities and networks associated with it, without manual reconciliation of data.