Amsterdam's Indurex raises €7 million to guard industrial plants' safety systems

Indurex, an Amsterdam-based start-up that protects the control and safety systems of industrial plants, has raised €7 million (about $7.8 million) in a round led by Contrarian Ventures, with Axeleo Capital and Curiosity taking part. The funding was announced on October 22, 2026, less than nine months after the company came out of stealth. Indurex said it will use the money for research and development and for commercial expansion in Europe and the Middle East.

Factories, refineries, power plants and water systems run on what engineers call operational technology: the controllers, sensors and safety systems that open valves, run turbines and shut a plant down if something goes wrong. For decades, these systems were kept separate from the internet. Today many are connected to company networks so that operators can monitor them remotely and use the data. That brings efficiency, but it also exposes them to cyberattacks, and an attack on a safety system can do physical harm, not just steal data.

Indurex's pitch is that most industrial security tools watch network traffic, looking for unusual messages moving between machines. Its SafeGuard AI platform instead looks at the engineering and safety data underneath, drawing in information from control systems, safety systems, operational records and IT security tools. The idea is to spot when a safety setting has been changed, or a system is behaving in a way that does not match how the plant is designed to work, whether because of an attack or a mistake. These are the company's own descriptions of its product, and its value will be judged by customers.

The investors are worth noting. Contrarian Ventures is described as a climate-focused venture capital firm. Its decision to lead the round reflects a view that the energy transition, with more grid-connected renewables, batteries and data centres, increases the number of industrial systems that need protecting. Expansion into the Middle East, with its large oil, gas and utility sector, fits the same logic.

For Indian readers, the story points to a growing field. As India adds power plants, data centres and connected grids, the same risk of cyberattacks on operational technology applies here. Specialised start-ups in industrial cybersecurity are a niche where Indian founders and engineers could compete for global customers and funding, as Indurex has done in Europe.

Short-term: Indurex will hire sales, support and deployment staff and invest in product development, aiming to win more industrial customers in Europe and the Middle East.

Long-term: If its approach proves effective, it could push industrial security beyond network monitoring towards closer checks on safety and engineering data, raising standards for protecting critical infrastructure.

Who is affected: Operators of oil and gas plants, power utilities, factories and data centres; industrial cybersecurity vendors; investors in climate and security technology; and engineers working on industrial control systems, including in India.

Questions and Answers