# RMBG. Think. Build. Invest.

## About
RMBG BV is a boutique engineering and advisory firm in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. We build hardware and software using agent-assisted delivery (AI agents paired with senior engineers) under a cybersecurity discipline, so speed never comes at the cost of an unreviewed codebase. Founded by Aike Müller, RMBG works with global corporations, mission-driven NGOs, and startups across consumer electronics, industrial hardware, AI, cybersecurity, and sustainability.

## Positioning
Agentic development is fast; agentic development without a security review is a liability. RMBG does both: agents compress the mechanical engineering work, senior engineers review every commit, and a security gate sits before merge rather than an audit before launch.

## Founder
Aike Müller, Founder & CEO. Entrepreneur and cybersecurity specialist. Former M&A at PwC. Founded Keezel, taking an award-winning IoT cybersecurity device from concept to mass production and global distribution. Deep expertise in hardware development, firmware, DFM, certification, and scaling remote technical teams.

## How we engage
- **Think**: technology opportunity scans, requirements and estimation workshops, digital transformation roadmaps, business model innovation.
- **Build**: agentic software delivery with human review on every commit; hardware, IoT and embedded systems; connected products and cloud integration; DFM, certification and production support; secure-by-design engineering.
- **Invest**: equity-for-services engagements, co-founding and venture building, interim technical leadership, long-horizon product ownership.

## How we scale
Three layers, assembled per engagement: AI agents for the mechanical engineering load; a senior core team owning architecture and security decisions; and near-shore and offshore specialists across Europe, Asia and the Americas, including hardware engineers near the factories that build the product. Time zones are used for continuous progress, and manufacturing work is supported on site rather than remotely.

## Research and IP
RMBG runs its own R&D alongside client work on connected hardware, sensing, and secure device architecture. Some of this has resulted in patented intellectual property.

## Selected work (clients not named)
- Own product: an award-winning consumer hardware security device, taken from concept to mass production, shipped to 125+ countries with retail in the US, Europe and Japan, backed by $3M raised.
- Patented connected wellness device: hardware bring-up, firmware, Bluetooth link and a companion app with on-device personalisation, built with privacy as an architectural constraint. Delivered to a production-ready device.
- Beverage procurement platform for hospitality operators, connecting venues to suppliers with catalogue, ordering and reconciliation.
- Wearable EMS training system: hardware and firmware for a dry-electrode stimulation suit and wireless power pack, with battery management, safety limits and a BLE link.
- Mobile RFID authentication for freight handling at a major European airport, built on LTE-M and deployed with several large cargo handlers.
- Autonomous e-bike rental platform for alpine resort towns: unattended pickup and return, fleet state, payments, remote diagnostics.
- Invite-only dating platform, where identity verification, vetting and moderation were the core engineering problems.
- Connected capsule for e-bike storage and charging: charge monitoring to prevent battery fire, tamper detection, phone and smartwatch access, LTE uplink.
- Smart storage in residential parking structures, using residents' phones over Bluetooth as the sensing layer instead of per-unit hardware.

## Security practice
Threat modelling before architecture is fixed; secure-by-design development across firmware and cloud; embedded security for constrained hardware; privacy-preserving AI and data handling; dependency, secrets and supply-chain scanning; compliance and certification support.

## Contact
- Email: info@rmbg.nl
- Address: Boy Edgardstraat 27, 1066 GR Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Chamber of Commerce: #76905284

## Insights
Long-form articles for hardware, IoT and digital founders and investors, written by Aike Müller. Published at https://rmbg.nl/insights, with a feed at https://rmbg.nl/insights/rss.xml.

### Funding and validation
- [Fund the Whole Phase, or Don't Start It](https://rmbg.nl/insights/fund-the-whole-phase): Why programmes that raise only to the next gate stall there, what a development phase costs, and how factories treat stop-start customers.
- [Ideas Are Cheap. Buyers Are Expensive.](https://rmbg.nl/insights/ideas-are-cheap): How to test demand for a connected product in 2026, which signals count, and why a working prototype stopped being evidence.
- [The Money Came Back for Hardware. It Just Stopped Calling Itself That.](https://rmbg.nl/insights/the-money-came-back-for-hardware): How hardware startups get funded in 2026: the deep tech rebrand, what a seed has to prove, and the European stack outside VC.

### Building and shipping
- [Someone Has to Own the Calendar](https://rmbg.nl/insights/someone-has-to-own-the-calendar): What running a hardware programme actually involves once the spec is signed: gates, cost walks, remote factories and a calendar you do not control.
- [The Cheapest Prototype You Will Ever Build](https://rmbg.nl/insights/the-cheapest-prototype): Why the requirements doc is a hardware startup's cheapest prototype, and what regulation, security and sunset policy now force into its first draft.
- [The Hard Part Moved](https://rmbg.nl/insights/the-hard-part-moved): Prototyping a connected product is nearly free in 2026. Tariffs, memory allocation and working capital are where hardware breaks now.
- [A Hardware Founder's Glossary for 2026](https://rmbg.nl/insights/hardware-founders-glossary): Seventy-eight terms a hardware founder meets in quotes, inspection reports, customs entries and compliance emails, defined plainly.

### Compliance and economics
- [The Device Is a Third of the Company](https://rmbg.nl/insights/the-device-is-a-third-of-the-company): The app, the returns desk, the channel, the packaging register and the liability all outlive your launch. Budget for the two thirds nobody demos.
- [What Actually Stops You Shipping: A 2026 Certification Map for Connected Hardware](https://rmbg.nl/insights/certification-map-2026): What certification costs for connected hardware in the EU and US in 2026, and which deadlines are already live.
- [Six Autopsies: How Hardware Companies Died, 2023 to 2026](https://rmbg.nl/insights/six-autopsies): What Humane, Northvolt, Moxie, Arrival and Cana died of, and the practical way to avoid each cause of death.

## URLs
- Website: https://rmbg.nl
- About: https://rmbg.nl/about
- Expertise: https://rmbg.nl/expertise
- Insights: https://rmbg.nl/insights
- Get Started: https://rmbg.nl/get-started
- Founder Bio: https://rmbg.nl/founder-bio
- Privacy Policy: https://rmbg.nl/privacy
- Terms of Service: https://rmbg.nl/terms