Descartes is our favourite bit of boredom in the portfolio. The company runs a software and data network for logistics: customs, compliance, routing. The more companies and carriers sit inside it, the more valuable it becomes to the next ones to join — a classic network effect.
We are playing two things at once: recurring subscription revenue that grows along with the complexity of global trade, and steady, small acquisitions bolted onto that same network. It is a model that quietly compounds, percentage point by percentage point.
Risk: a collapse in global trade volumes hits the core, and the high valuation of a quality company leaves little room for error. We hold it precisely because the mechanism is so easy to explain.