Helios Innovation

Industrial wastewater is one of the most complex and costly environmental problems of our time. Highly contaminated flows cannot be released and must often be transported for destruction even though up to 98% of the content is actually water. This leads to massive costs, heavy CO₂ emissions from transport, and increasing regulatory pressure both in Sweden and across the EU. At the same time, water contaminated with PFAS - the so-called “forever chemicals” linked to cancer, hormonal disruption, and weakened immune systems - is spreading into groundwater and drinking water worldwide.

Helios Innovations, based in Halmstad, Sweden, has developed a breakthrough solution. Their technology cleans the most contaminated industrial water directly on-site, inside container-based units, without the need for costly transportation. The system removes heavy metals, oily residues, and the most challenging industrial chemicals - including PFAS - in a scalable and cost-efficient way. The result: lower costs, significant CO₂ savings, and safer water management.

Today, Helios is already treating the most contaminated wastewater for some of the Nordic region’s largest pharmaceutical and industrial companies. The company has also taken a leading role in tackling PFAS, processing around 70% of all firefighting foam and PFAS-contaminated water in Sweden through Europe’s first commercial facility for concentrating high-contamination PFAS flows.

The Team

The company was founded by Jonatan Persson, who built his first water filter at just 17 years old to combat dirty water, together with Johanna Gillberg. Their mission is simple but powerful: to create scalable solutions to one of the world’s biggest environmental problems. With strong growth of 170% in the past year and a passionate team, Helios is now scaling rapidly across the Nordics and Europe.

Backers’ Perspective

At BackingMinds, we have studied the water treatment sector for years, especially solutions that remove hazardous pollutants like heavy metals and PFAS without transport. Helios has cracked this challenge with an elegant, scalable, and cost-efficient technology.

The team has achieved impressive growth, clear product-market fit, and has proven the potential of their solution with leading industrial customers. By addressing one of the greatest environmental challenges of our time, Helios is positioned to become the new standard for industrial water treatment globally.

That’s why we are proud to back Helios on their journey to scale production, expand internationally, and set a new benchmark for how industries manage water.