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This is a newsletter of what I've found most noteworthy in Norwegian tech the past two weeks. Feel free to share this edition with your network, either via clicking to share straight to Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, or by forwarding this email to someone you believe will like it. If it's been forwarded to you, click here to subscribe. /Kjetil

Funding news: 
Decentralized personal finance app Reltime has raised $50M from GEM Digital Limited. Link

Fish farming software Aquabyte has raised $25M in a round led by Softbank. Link ($)

Second-hand marketplace app Tise has raised 200MNOK from Ebay, Bring, Nysnø, and existing investors. Link ($)

Digital payment company MeaWallet has raised €20M from Saltpay. Link ($)

Automation management platform RPA Supervisor has raised $20M in a round led by Dawn Capital. Link

Industrial technology conglomerate Nordic Technology Group has raised 102MNOK and listed on Euronext Growth. Link

Kids' reading app Pickatale has raised 100MNOK from Arne Blystad, AP3, and existing investors. Link ($)

Electric ferry company Brim Explorer has raised 75MNOK from Ferd. Link ($)

Carbon accounting tool Energi.ai has raised 60MNOK from Frode Strand-Nielsen, Janeiro Energy, and others. Link ($)

Chooose, software enabling climate action, has raised 35MNOK in a round led by Shell Ventures and Vinyl. Link

Sleep monitoring system Vitalthings has raised 21MNOK from Kristian Lundkvist, Adolfsen Gruppen, Ivar Koteng, Jørgen Graabak, and others. Link ($)

Picterus, smartphone-based monitoring of jaundice, has raised 20MNOK from CoFounder, E14, and EIC Accelerator. Link ($)

E-sports company Heroic Group has raised 18.5MNOK from a series of private investors. Link ($)

Real estate monitoring company Soundsensing has raised 13.2MNOK from Wallcross, Alligate, Trond Riiber-Knudsen, StartupLab, and Peter Thomsen. Link ($)

Waved, volume control for public spaces, has raised 10.8MNOK from Wiski, Alligate, Boitano, Joachim Wille, and Magnus Valmot. Link

No-code enterprise app builder Konciv has raised 10MNOK from Norsea, Kongsberg Digital, Jørgen Waaler, and Jacob Møller. Link

Aiba, software for detecting fake internet profiles and grooming, has raised 7.5MNOK from Firda, StartupLab, Wiski, Antler, Anne-Lise Waal, and others. Link ($)

Ghost kitchen company Palett has raised 6.5MNOK in a round led by Link. Link

Agricultural monitoring system Agdir has raised 5.2MNOK through crowdfunding. Link ($)

Culture Intelligence, software for tracking and improving company culture, has raised 5MNOK. from Erik Chambe-Eng, Anders Hvide, Aleksander Gamme, Bratsberg Invest, Yngvar Ugland, and others. Link ($)

Wonderboy, a community for Fantasy Premier League players, has raised 1MNOK from Hans Michael Hansen. Link ($)

Headless CMS software Sanity has raised an undisclosed amount from Shopify. Link

VR therapeutics company Nordic Neurotech has raised an undisclosed amount from Canica. Link ($)

Hjemmelegene, doctors on demand, has raised an undisclosed amount from Norgesgruppen. Link ($)

Vewd Software, solutions for TVs and streaming services, has been acquired by Xperi for $109M. Link

Caplist, software for general assemblies, has been acquired by Folkeinvest for 30MNOK. Link

Prediktor, energy data and intelligence provider, has been acquired by TGS for an undisclosed amount. Link

Unconventional Ventures has raised a 310MNOK first fund to invest in underrepresented founders. Link ($)

Other notable stories:
Brutally honest interview with Bergen Carbon Solutions-founder Jan Børge Sagemo on the struggles that come with being a founder, including contemplating suicide. Very happy he came through it alive, and also that he's sharing so openly. If you're struggling, never be afraid of reaching out to someone. Link ($)

Story on the two leading equity crowdfunding sites; Dealflow and Folkeinvest. Both went into the year expecting continued growth, but so far that's not happening (probably mostly due to macro reasons). Link ($)


Local investors Nysnø, Hadean, and Skyfall on the current state of the local early-stage funding market. Link ($)
Related: Whereby and Favrit recently announced layoffs. Links: WherebyFavrit

Innovation Norway responds to criticism voiced about their "Oppstartslån". Tl;dr: we'll look into it. Link

Introduction to 247 Ventures, the corporate venture arm of 24SevenOffice. Link ($)

Several stories about companies announcing their 2021 revenues the past few weeks:
On-demand print platform Gelato: 874MNOK, Accounting software Fiken: 168MNOK ($), Construction worker software Devinco: 110MNOK ($), Game-based learning software Attensi: 110MNOK, Fashion e-commerce site Villoid77MNOK ($), Chatbot company Kindly: 50MNOK ($), Visualization software Visco: 40MNOK ($), Residential power management app Futurehome: 35MNOK ($), Sports team management app Spond: 23MNOK ($), Oil production optimization software Solution Seeker: 21MNOK ($), Vessel management software Vesselman: 7MNOK, KYC-software company Strise: 5MNOK ($)

From abroad: 
20 min documentary showing the inside of Paddle's acquisition of ProfitWell. While it barely scratches the surface of their process, it's an interesting watch as it shows many of the dynamics at play during an acquisition. Link

Mosaic Ventures with a brief report on "What do Europe’s leading founders have in common?". Link


Nikhil Trivedi on employee-VC alignment. This is something I've discussed a lot over the past few months; founders chasing the highest possible valuations early on might actually hurt their company as it makes their equity less attractive to the best potential hires. Followingly, investors benefit from aligning with employees among other things because it keeps valuations at more reasonable levels. One small caveat though: it seems to me that a certain group of candidates don't care about the equity when joining a startup, and would much rather join a company with a high valuation due to the credibility that comes with it (right or wrong). Link
Related: NYT times on employees taking out loans to buy stocks in their companies, and how the downsides become more evident as markets go down. Link ($)

Kyle Harrison on how VCs can be helpful, and how founders should think about this. Link

Harsh take on the current state of Meta/Facebook, and one I find it's hard to disagree with. One sentence stood out: "After making billions of dollars making people so angry at each other that we now have entire political parties driven by conspiracy theories, it has become obvious that Mark Zuckerberg is neither an innovator nor an operator". Link

Climate crisis tracker: The atmosphere is filling up with CO2. We must avoid a level of 450 parts per million. Current level: 417.5ppm (12 months ago: 414.4ppm, likely to exceed the target in 8-13 years). 

Disclaimer: I have indirect ownership in Aiba and Soundsensing.

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Kjetil Holmefjord · Gaustadalleen 21B · Oslo, Oslo 0349 · Norway