Velotic™ - an Industrial Software Startup with a 40+ Year Installed Base

KEYWORDS: Velotic™, Proficy®, Kepware®, ThingWorx®, Industrial Software, Operational Technology (OT), Industrial AI

Overview

Velotic™ is a new standalone industrial software company that brings together Proficy®, Kepware®, and ThingWorx® into a single, integrated portfolio. This move is a pivotal shift in the industrial software market, driven by manufacturers’ need to modernize operations, extract more value from industrial data, and adopt AI without compromising reliability, safety, or control. With a decades‑long installed base, Velotic enters the market with meaningful scale, deep OT expertise, and a clear software‑only focus that supports openness and interoperability across complex brownfield environments.

Velotic offers a combined stack that spans industrial connectivity, systems of record, and application enablement, enabling manufacturers to move from data access to operational action. It emphasizes a pragmatic approach to AI that keeps humans in the loop for safety and business‑critical decisions, aligning with real‑world manufacturing requirements rather than purely IT‑centric models. As a focused, private‑equity‑backed company, Velotic operates with the cultural and structural freedom to innovate faster, pursue targeted acquisitions, and simplify an architecture many manufacturers have already assembled themselves. In ARC’s view, Velotic is a natural evolution of the industrial software market.

Why the Integration of Proficy®, Kepware® and ThingWorx® Signals a New Chapter for Industrial Software

The industrial software market is entering a pivotal moment. Manufacturers are under pressure to modernize operations, extract greater value from data, and rapidly adopt AI—without sacrificing reliability, safety, or control. Against this backdrop, the formation of a new standalone industrial software company bringing together Proficy®, Kepware® and ThingWorx® represents more than a corporate restructuring. It signals a shift in how industrial data, analytics, and operations technology (OT) can be delivered at scale.

At the center of the new company—operating under the name Velotic—is a clear ambition: to accelerate manufacturing performance through Velocity, Openness, and Analytics, while staying grounded in the realities of the factory and plant floor. To lead that effort, Velotic appointed Brian Shepherd—an executive with extensive leadership experience in industrial software and automation—as CEO, and longtime PTC CEO James Heppelmann as Executive Chairman. Most of the current Proficy, Kepware, and ThingWorx leadership team will report to Shepherd, supporting continuity for a large installed base that spans more than 40 years for Proficy and more than 30 years for Kepware.

A Scaled, Pure Play Industrial Software Company

Ahead of the official announcement, ARC spoke with Brian Shepherd and members of his team about Velotic’s vision and objectives. From day one, Velotic enters the market with meaningful scale: over $300 million in revenue and roughly 1,200 employees, with approximately half dedicated to R&D. Industrial customers increasingly demand platforms that are innovative and open, while also being proven in production, supported over the long term, and capable of operating across hundreds of plants worldwide.

Velotic™ is not a startup experiment. The portfolio includes technologies already embedded in some of the world’s largest manufacturers. Proficy serves as the operational backbone for companies, such as Procter & Gamble, deployed across nearly 100 plants as the system of record for manufacturing operations. Kepware is ubiquitous in industrial environments, acting as the data access and connectivity layer in countless facilities. ThingWorx brings an application and orchestration layer that enables manufacturers to build and scale operational solutions on top of that data foundation.

Individually, each of these platforms has been trusted for years. Together, they form something more compelling: a full stack industrial data and operations platform designed for scale.

From Data Access to Action

One of the most powerful aspects of this combination is how naturally the pieces fit together.

• Kepware® provides secure, abstracted access to industrial data across heterogeneous environments. Its role is foundational for connectivity, cybersecurity, and decoupling hardware from software—key enablers for IT/OT (and IT/OT/ET) convergence and Software Defined Automation (SDA).
• Proficy® delivers core systems of record—historian, HMI/SCADA, MES, advanced production scheduling, and analytics—that manage, contextualize, and preserve operational truth.
• ThingWorx® sits above, enabling manufacturers to build applications that turn data into action—whether for operations, maintenance, quality, or performance management.

This layered approach mirrors what IT went through years ago with software defined infrastructure. In OT, that same abstraction is now becoming essential. Manufacturers want flexibility without losing determinism, safety, or reliability.

Just as importantly, customers have already validated this architecture organically. Hundreds of manufacturers have independently combined Kepware, Proficy, and ThingWorx to build their own operational platforms. Velotic™ formalizes and accelerates what the market has already proven.

Open by Design, Not by Exception

A defining characteristic of this new company is its lack of a hardware agenda. Velotic™ is software only, which helps the company to remain genuinely open: interoperable across vendors, supportive of brownfield environments, and aligned with customers who cannot—and will not—rip and replace existing assets.

This positioning also differentiates Velotic from hyperscalers. While cloud providers bring immense computing power, openness, and AI innovation, they can lack deep OT expertise in deterministic control, redundancy, safety, and real time operations. Manufacturing customers expect partners who understand those constraints—not solutions that treat factories like data centers. Velotic’s leadership and product teams combine that OT depth with years of collaboration across hyperscalers and enterprise IT, supporting an open, interoperable strategy.

AI with Humans in the Loop

Artificial intelligence looms large in every industrial discussion, but Velotic’s approach is notably pragmatic.

Manufacturing environments are safety critical and business critical. While AI excels at pattern recognition, anomaly detection, and prediction, it does not replace human judgment overnight. What manufacturers need today—and for the foreseeable future—is a blend of artificial intelligence and what was described as authentic intelligence: human expertise embedded in workflows.

In practical terms, this means AI can identify a problem, but systems must support decisions about what happens next—dispatching maintenance, escalating alarms, or adjusting operations—often with human oversight.
This human in the loop model reflects how real factories operate, and it aligns well with Velotic’s role as an operational platform rather than a sole AI provider.

Built to Move Faster

Perhaps the most important shift is culture. As a standalone company backed by private equity firm TPG, Velotic is not a side portfolio within a larger organization. The Proficy, Kepware and ThingWorx solutions are the strategy. That clarity enables faster decision making, focused investment, and modernization of technology stacks without constraints of competing investment priorities.

There is also optionality. With access to capital, the company can pursue targeted acquisitions to extend capabilities where it makes sense—without losing focus on the core mission of industrial data, analytics, and operations.

A Natural Evolution for the Market

The industrial software market has been moving toward this model for years, and AI is accelerating the shift. Customers have been assembling similar architectures themselves—stitching together connectivity, historians, HMI/SCADA, MES, production scheduling, analytics, and other applications across vendors and partnerships.

What Velotic represents is a simplification of that complexity—bringing proven components under one roof, aligned around openness, scale, and operational reality.

In an AI era where manufacturers must modernize without disrupting production, this combination looks less like a bold experiment and more like a natural evolution. ARC Advisory Group supports this direction and expects Velotic’s portfolio, operating model, and leadership to position the company well for growth in industrial software. ARC will continue to engage with Velotic and plans to track progress and share relevant lessons learned and customer success stories with manufacturers, processors, and OEMs globally.

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