BackingMinds invests SEK 14.2 million in the cleantech company from Halmstad, which has grown with 170%, from SEK 3 to 8 million in annual sales. Behind the company are Jonatan Persson and Johanna Gillberg. Jonatan is the inventor who, at the age of 17, built his first purification machine to combat dirty water. His mission is to develop simple but powerful solutions to one of the world's biggest environmental problems. Already today, Helios purifies the most polluted water for some of the Nordic region's largest pharmaceutical manufacturers and industrial companies.
Together with their team, Jonatan and Johanna have developed a technology that purifies industrially contaminated water from heavy metals, oil sludge, and the most difficult-to-treat chemicals. The purification takes place directly on site in a container without the need to transport huge amounts of water, resulting in significant cost and CO₂ savings.
Industrially contaminated water is often difficult and expensive to manage. The most contaminated flows cannot be discharged and must be sent for destruction - even though up to 98 % is actually water. This means high costs and high climate emissions from transportation. At the same time, many process waters are allowed to be discharged, but at a high cost because the levels of pollutants exceed limit values. Rules are being tightened at both national and EU level, but effective solutions for the most contaminated flows have been lacking - until now.
BackingMinds has taken a deep dive into the field of water treatment, including heavy metals and PFAS, the so-called "perpetual chemicals", which do not break down in nature and which have been linked to increased health risks and are currently found in both groundwater and drinking water in Sweden and the world. PFAS has been linked to cancer, endocrine disruption and impaired immune systems. Helios has already taken a leading role in this area, treating around 70% of all firefighting foam and firefighting foam contaminated water in Sweden in Europe's first commercial facility for concentrating highly contaminated PFAS streams.
"BackingMinds has followed Helios for several years and we are impressed by the team, their growth and the skillful way they have found product market-fit for various water solutions. Helios is tackling one of the biggest environmental problems of our time with a simple, cost-effective and scalable solution. The potential is huge and this is exactly the type of company we want to back", says Lisen Oliw, Investment Partner at BackingMinds.
The company currently has full order books and with the investment, Helios will scale up production, accelerate its international expansion and establish the technology as a new standard for water treatment in industries worldwide.
"We want to give industry the opportunity to clean their water on site and at the same time address one of the biggest environmental problems of our time. BackingMind's investment and knowledge will enable us to accelerate our journey in Sweden and Europe", says Jonatan Persson, CEO and founder of Helios Innovations.
The company has recently established operations in Norway and is currently expanding to Denmark and the rest of Europe. In the future, the company will also address liquid waste from oil and glycol, for example from airports and large ships.
About Helios
Helios Innovations develops smart water treatment solutions that allow industries to purify their process water directly on site. With proprietary technology, Helios Innovations removes heavy metals, oil sludge and PFAS - the so-called "perpetual chemicals" and reduces both costs and CO₂ emissions.
About BackingMinds:
BackingMinds is the venture capital firm that identifies the blind spots of venture capital; founders and verticals overlooked by traditional investors. Founded in 2016 by Sara Wimmercranz and Susanne Najafi, the company has successful companies such as TrusTrace, TransferGalaxy and Cemvision in its portfolio.