Cognite closes $75 million series A funding backed by Accel.

Cognite, an Oslo, Norway-based SAAS developer for asset-intensive industries, announced closing a series A round of $75 million.

The money was raised from Accel in a deal that values Cognite at $550 million. As part of the agreement, Accel is gaining a seat on Cognite's Board of Directors. Proceeds  will be used for product development and expanding its operations.

Cognite, founded in 2016 by CEO John Markus Lervik and Geir Engdahl, develops industrial software-as-a-service used for the full-scale digital transformation of asset-intensive industries around the world. Their key product, Cognite Data Fusion (CDF), helps with contextualized OT/IT data to drive industrial applications that increase safety, sustainability, and efficiency, and drive revenue.

The company has 450 employees across offices in Oslo, Norway, Houston and Austin, Texas, and Tokyo, Japan and a client portfolio of around 30 energy and shipping customers, including OMV, DEW Wintershall, Aker BP and Lundin Petroleum.

Prior to this deal, Cognite was owned by the Norwegian industrial investment company Aker, which controlled about 65% of the shares. Aker was the initial investor backing the company at its start at the end of 2016.