The Norwegian investor community is fairly small compared to other countries but the top VCs set the bar high. We have created a short list of the biggest investors in Norway and hope it'll be useful for any entrepreneurs looking to raise capital in the country.
Top Venture Capital Firms in Norway
1. Investinor
Investinor invests in Norwegian based, high potential companies that are internationally oriented and in the phases ranging from early growth to expansion. The company has BNOK 4.2 ($500 m) under management and focus on companies within the internet, software, semiconductors, energy, cleantech, marine and life sciences sectors.
Website: www.investinor.no
Founded: 2008
Total fund size: NOK3.7B
Investinor's most notable exits include BerGenBio, poLight, and Swarm64.
2. Viking Venture
Viking Venture makes growth equity investments in scale-up companies in the Nordics and the Netherlands. Our investment focus is business to business software companies with international growth potential. Founded in 2001, Viking Venture currently has over NOK 3.5 billion under management and is headquartered in Trondheim, Norway.
Website: www.vikingventure.com
Founded: 2001
Total fund size: NOK3.9B
Viking Venture's most notable exits include Signicat, poLight, and its learning.
3. Norfund
Norfund is an active, strategic minority investor. They offer risk capital and expertise to help building sustainable businesses in poor countries.
Norfund aim to invest in countries where they can have the greatest impact. In countries where the private sector is weak and access to capital is scarce. This is primarily in Sub-Saharan Africa, butalso in some countries in South East Asia and Central America.
Website: www.norfund.no
Founded: 1997
Norfund's most notable exits include Family Bank Ltd, DFCU Group, and SN Power AS.
4. Schibsted Growth
Schibsted Growth is a part of Schibsted Media Group, that invests in and manages a portfolio of fast growing digital companies.
With offices in Oslo, Paris and Stockholm the Schibsted Growth team invests in ambitious digital companies with a plan to change the world.
The team can help smart founders and winning teams to establish products or services, scale their business, maximize growth and ultimately to become market leaders. By working alongside entrepreneurs, providing cash funding and leveraging the gathered experience and resources within Schibsted Media Group.
(Schibsted Media Group operates on 5 continents, in more than 40 markets and provides services that reach hundreds of millions of people around the world every day, empowering people in their daily life.)
Website: www.schibsted.com
Founded: 2007
Schibsted Growth's most notable exits include leboncoin Emploi Cadres, Monsieur Drive, and Ebok.no AS.
5. Alliance Venture
Alliance Venture is a Nordic venture capital firm investing in exceptional early-stage tech companies and purpose-driven founders with global ambitions. Offices in Oslo, Stockholm and Palo Alto.
Website: www.allianceventure.com
Founded: 2001
Total fund size: NOK1.7B
Alliance Venture's most notable exits include Wake, poLight, and Swarm64.
6. Katapult
We want to build a world in which all humans can thrive. We believe that capital and business can solve the world’s grand challenges. Our impact goals are to make impact investing mainstream and to steward exponential technologies to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
We invest in and support early stage impact tech startups, funds and projects, with a mission to solve the world’s most pressing problems through the use of exponential technologies. We believe that all investing needs to be impact investing. To meet our vision we lead by example and are creating a movement that other investors are following. Through our investment vehicles (Accelerators and Fund), Katapult Future Fest and Katapult Foundation we are building the impact investing field and attracting new capital. We are working on catalyzing HNWI, family offices and foundation capital into impact investing by both giving them opportunities to co-invest and by offering support and education.
An important part of our thesis is not only finding businesses that are solving the world’s greatest challenges but also how we can contribute as an impact investor to stewarding technologies as a force for good. Technology can be a catalyst for good but also cause great harm. As the world adopts ever more transformative tech, we believe that maximizing the chance of good outcomes requires responsible stewardship and clear intentionality.
We believe that the earlier in the company life-cycle this is made explicit, the greater the chance of positive impact. Active engagement and leveraging all aspects of Katapult supports our investees and cements a multi-stakeholder approach to decision making. We will set the standard for how to operate at the intersection of impact and tech.
Through our focus on Ocean, Climate and Africa we take a holistic approach to solving society’s largest challenges. By promoting healthy oceans, a stable climate and sustainable food systems we drive towards building a thriving world for all.
Website: www.katapult.vc
Founded: 2017
7. SINTEF Venture AS
SINTEF TTO & Venture invest in spin-off companies from SINTEF, NTNU and other research based institutions in Norway. Our dealflow reflect results from state-of-art research and cover a variety of sectors. SINTEF Venture seek to co-invest with VC funds with sector expertise at an early stage.
Website: www.sintef.no
Founded: 2004
Total fund size: NOK809M
SINTEF Venture AS's most notable exits include poLight, Resman, and GasSecure.
