The company began in the 1960’s as a group of the Building and Construction Research Department within the Dutch organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), the second largest R&D organization in Europe. The Foundation Pile Diagnostic Systems (FPDS) Group, as it was called, took on a broad range of activities for its clients in foundation pile testing with state-of-the-art technology that was developed in research and development projects. Their equipment and software also enabled clients to perform or monitor foundation pile testing themselves.
During the 1980’s the market, and especially the international market, expanded substantially for these activities. To ensure continued optimal services to all clients (incl. the international clients) while maintaining the high technology standards of the products, the decision was made in 1999 to change the department to a fully owned subsidiary of TNO. This subsidiary was called Profound (PROfessional FOUNdation Diagnostics), which was split off from the TNO organization some three years later, when it became a privately held company in 2002.
As an independent company Profound continues with the work that was started some 50 years ago, to accommodate its clients (now in more than 40 countries), and also to innovate by continuously making new practical applications in the field of foundation engineering and geotechnical monitoring available to the market.
