Octo Studio is a business studio built for ambitious entrepreneurs. Based in Spain, it offers startup incubation, acceleration, fundraising support, and relocation, helping founders move from idea to investment-ready company. Its portfolio runs from IoT precision agriculture to bionic hand prosthetics to farm-to-family marketplaces. What those founders share is a need to get things built, sourced, and shipped, often for the first time.
Startups get turned away. A lot.
Most suppliers are optimized for large, predictable orders. They have minimum order quantities, long lead times, and a preference for established clients who don’t ask too many questions. For a founder who just closed a seed round or needs a first production batch of a product that didn’t exist two years ago, the door is usually closed: you’re too small, come back when you have volume.
Octo Studio’s founders knew their portfolio companies would hit this wall. They needed a sourcing and logistics partner who wouldn’t just tolerate early-stage clients, but who would genuinely want to work with them.
No minimum ambition required
Helix was built around a different philosophy. A startup that needs custom IoT enclosures, a wellness brand sourcing its first run, a medtech company tracking down certified components: these are not edge cases for us, they are the work. The partnership with Octo Studio made natural sense. Octo brings founders infrastructure, network, and capital. Helix brings a sourcing and supply chain partner who picks up the phone, runs the factory audits, and delivers, regardless of order size or complexity.
“Growing startups need partners who treat their ambition seriously, not suppliers who only open the door once you already have scale. That’s exactly what Helix offers.”
Nadia, Founder of Helix
What the partnership covers
Supplier identification and audit
Helix maps the manufacturing landscape in China and verifies suppliers through factory audits covering quality, certifications, capacity, and values. No shortcuts.
Sample and quality control
Before any volume commitment, samples are tested against the startup’s specifications. Pre-shipment inspections make sure what was approved is what gets shipped.
Logistics and delivery
From single-pallet pilots to recurring production orders, Helix manages international freight through trusted partners like DHL, optimizing for speed, cost, and security.
Flexibility for what’s next
Startups don’t know exactly what they’ll need in six months. Helix doesn’t require them to. The team adapts to new product categories, new markets, and new challenges as they come up.
The right partner at the right stage
For a startup, supply chain failure is not just operational. It can be existential. A missed launch window, defective components, or simply not finding a manufacturer willing to produce at early-stage quantities can end a company before it begins. The partnership exists to remove that risk, not by pretending sourcing is easy, but by putting an expert in the founder’s corner who is as invested in the outcome as they are.
You’re not too small
If you’re building something new and you’ve already been told no because of your order size or product complexity, that’s a signal, not a ceiling. Helix works with companies at every stage of growth, and brings the same diligence to a first production run as to a fiftieth. That’s what the Octo Studio partnership is built on, and what we bring to every founder who reaches out.
Key takeaways
• Direct access to Helix’s sourcing network from day one for Octo Studio founders
• Full cycle covered: supplier identification, samples, QC, logistics, and adaptation as the company evolves
• Built for early-stage, novel, and irregular products that other suppliers won’t touch