Norway’s Hottest Startups Right Now

Architecture Detail of the Opera House in Oslo, Norway

Did you know that Norway is ranked as one of the most business-friendly places? No wonder the ecosystem is booming and startups arise from every corner of the country, bringing new solutions to traditional industries such as maritime or fishing while others are tackling impact on a global scale. And supported by the strong cooperation of all ecosystem players, a unicorn is bound to be born.

Last week, during Oslo Innovation Week, OIW 100 Pitches welcomed startups who address one or more of the 17 UN Sustainability Goals and showcased the shortlisted companies on stage. From the hundreds of entries, 49 were selected and got the chance to present their ideas in front of an expert jury in their respective field of Health and Wellbeing, Circular Economy, Ethical Finance, Green City Solutions, Life on Land, or Energy & Ocean Tech. The finals took place during DNB NXT.

“I am very happy with this year’s batch. The fact that 229 companies from 36 countries figured out that our relatively narrow approach (seed stage, business solutions to 17 SDGs) and completed the application is awesome. Pitching contests are still the best kept secret in business – it’s such a great way to understand new business models, products and services and I’m happy to see so many from the wider startup community agreeing with us” – Jørn Haanæs, Startup Director at Oslo Business Region said.

Meet the finalists of OIW 100 Pitches 

The winner who received 300 000 NOK from DNB is Norwegian startup Evoy, the “Tesla of boats”, developing electric marine propulsion systems designed for fast e-boating. “Evoy is only in the starting blocks of our (electric) voyage and we are really looking forward to contribute to the electrification of maritime transport for smaller and faster boats.” says Leif A. Stavøstrand, CEO of Evoy.  “As all start-ups, we are constantly in need of capital to reach our next milestones. So most of the money will be used for increasing runway, but naturally we will also have a small gathering with the team to celebrate our recent achievements.”

Zero Waste Biotech Limited  is a climate change reduction company based around the circular economy. Their Aero-D Machines convert food & organic waste into digestate in 24hours enabling clients to reduce their waste by over 30% from month one.

Nordic Brain Tech develops the world’s first digitized biofeedback treatment that is evidence-based from a university hospital.

The Littery is saving the planet from litter and plastic pollution by turning litter into e-lottery tickets.

iHopa Swedish startup iHopa has a vision to make co-owning an obvious alternative to owning alone.

Impact Mapper offers an all-in-one tool for donors, non-profits, evaluators, impact investors & companies to visualize change, track data trends and share the stories that matters most.

Marna Energi– The Norwegian startup provides solutions for solar energy storage.

Sonoclear is an acoustic coupling fluid that reduces image artefacts in ultrasound imaging, providing improved image quality during brain tumor resection.

Are these the next Norwegian Unicorns?

Apart from the pre-seed companies competing at OIW 100 Pitches, interesting startups on their way to become unicorns were also present during OIW. Let’s see some of the most promising startups Norway has to offer.

Fjong is transforming the world’s second most polluting industry (and $1.7 trillion worth globally), the fashion industry by introducing a convenient way to rent and share clothes. The closet includes over 4000 new and vintage designer women’s clothing.

Spacemaker: AI technology that helps users discover smarter ways to maximize the potential of a building site and enables collaborative workflow among architects, engineers, real estate developers and municipalities.

LawBotics: Software that makes it easy for businesses to increase the quality of their legal documents, while saving a significant amount of time and resources.

reMarkable: A digital notepad that can be written on using a stylus and read like a tablet. It feels, looks and acts just like real paper. Human-oriented tech.

Unacast: From Norway and headquartered in New York, Unacast transforms human mobility data into actionable insights by location tracking for many different purposes – from targeted marketing to real estate planning.

Otovo: A platform that sells solar panels, simplifies installations, and instantly compares the costs of local installers. The solar panels generate clean energy for 25 years, while Otovo buys back any surplus energy produced.

Ardoq: An Enterprise Intelligence Graph that lets businesses understand the interconnection of their people, processes and data – from static architecture to augmented analysis.

Huddly: Combines hardware, software and AI to create intelligent, wide-angle conference cameras for everyone who relies on video for collaboration.

Whereby: A browser-based video meeting tool that keeps the user productive by striking a balance between simplicity, security and quality in video.