Helin, a Dutch industrial edge intelligence scaleup based in Rijswijk, has secured a €10 million growth investment to expand internationally and accelerate development of its edge computing and analytics platform. The round was led by Amsterdam-based investment firm FORWARD.one, alongside a loan facility from Rabobank, the company said.
The new capital will be used primarily to strengthen Helin’s international sales capacity and to further build out its platform, which is designed to run directly on industrial assets such as vessels, offshore platforms, and remote energy sites. Helin positions its product as an alternative to fragmented on-site software stacks and cloud-only analytics that can struggle with bandwidth constraints, connectivity interruptions, and latency-sensitive operations.
Funding aimed at scaling deployments in critical environments
Helin operates in sectors where downtime can be costly and safety implications are significant, including oil and gas, renewable energy, maritime, and manufacturing. The company says its approach enables real-time monitoring, control, and security of industrial installations by placing compute and analytics closer to where data is generated.
“We already run in critical industrial environments. This investment allows us to scale deployments faster while continuing to meet and optimise strict requirements on uptime, latency, and security,” said Martijn Handels, co-founder and chief product and technology officer at Helin.
Unlike cloud-centric models, Helin’s software is designed to run on-site, allowing operations to continue even when network connectivity is limited or temporarily unavailable. That capability is particularly relevant for offshore and remote environments, where connectivity disruptions are common and delays in decision-making can affect operational continuity.
What Helin’s platform does
Founded in 2017, Helin describes itself as an AI data platform provider focused on industrial edge computing and analytics. The company says it integrates hardware, software, and connectivity into a single system, enabling customers to deploy applications without major changes to existing IT setups.
Helin’s pitch centers on simplifying how industrial organizations run analytics and AI applications in operational technology (OT) environments. In many heavy industries, digital tools have historically been deployed as separate point solutions, often tied to specific equipment vendors or requiring extensive integration work. Helin says its platform consolidates those capabilities so industrial teams can deploy, update, and manage applications more quickly across assets.
Edge computing as a response to latency and connectivity constraints
Industrial edge computing has grown in relevance as companies try to extract more value from sensor data while reducing dependence on constant connectivity to centralized clouds. Processing data locally can reduce latency for time-sensitive tasks and limit the amount of data that needs to be transmitted off-site, which can also support security and compliance objectives.
Helin argues that these advantages are essential in offshore energy and maritime settings, where long distances, harsh conditions, and intermittent connectivity can make cloud-only architectures impractical for operational decision-making.
Investor view: accelerating enterprise rollouts
FORWARD.one said the new funding is intended to speed up Helin’s commercial execution and broader enterprise deployments. “Helin has proved the value of its solution with the most demanding clients. The platform is deployed, expanding, and retained by industrial customers. This investment is about accelerating sales execution and enterprise-level rollouts,” said Paul Pruijmboom, partner at FORWARD.one and a board member at Helin.
The investment follows Helin’s earlier financing history with the same lead investor. The company raised a €3 million seed round from FORWARD.one in 2023, which it described at the time as a transition from bootstrapping into a faster growth phase.
Growth ambitions and market position
Helin said it aims to become a leading development platform for industrial AI applications, with long-term ambitions that include reaching unicorn status. Handels said the company is already an international market leader in the oil and gas segment and intends to extend that position across other industries it serves.
“Our goal is to become the world’s leading development platform for industrial AI applications and ultimately reach unicorn status. In the oil and gas sector, we are already an international market leader, and we aim to extend that position to the other industries we operate in,” said Martijn Handels. He added that the new investment will support international sales expansion and help the company reach industrial organizations looking to run AI applications securely and locally.
Helin currently employs more than 80 people and operates globally. The company reported that its signed ARR (annual recurring revenue) has grown twelve-fold over the past three years, indicating strong commercial momentum as industrial customers increasingly invest in digitalization programs that can deliver measurable operational improvements.
Customer base includes major industrial operators
Helin said its customer roster includes large industrial and energy operators such as Boskalis, Shell, BP, Stena, and Sunrock. The company’s focus on critical environments suggests it is targeting deployments where reliability and security are core requirements rather than optional features.
With the combination of equity financing led by FORWARD.one and debt support from Rabobank, Helin is positioning itself to move from successful deployments to broader rollouts across global industrial fleets and sites—an expansion that typically requires both product maturity and a scaled go-to-market organization.
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