How Oslo’s Startups Want To Move Norway Away From Oil

Sustainability How Oslo’s Startups Want To Move Norway Away From Oil Heather Farmbrough Senior Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. Journalist, editor, author and conference moderator Following New! Follow this author to stay notified about their latest stories. Got it! Oct 24, 2022, 06:15am EDT | New! Click on the conversation bubble to join the conversation Got it! Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Johan Brand ANKI N GROETHE At the end of our interview, Johan Brand calls me an Uber to Gardermoen, and carries my suitcase out to the boot of the car.

Tech millionaires don’t often help me with my luggage, but this is Oslo, where the startup scene is very much on a human scale, and besides, Brand doesn’t think like most people. In 2010, he co-founded one of the earliest social impact investment funds, We Are Human. Two years later, as an investor, he co-founded Kahoot!, the games-based educational learning app, currently valued at just under 13bn NOK.

Neurodiverse himself, he is fascinated by how people learn. Fortunately, he observes, “Norwegians are good at learning new things. Our way of life has meant we had to teach ourselves to learn most things.

” Most famously, Norway has learnt how to be an oil power. Oil – or, more precisely, the prudent investment of oil revenues in the Government Pension Fund – has helped make Norway the sixth wealthiest country in the world. MORE FOR YOU Juan Soto Contract Rejection Could Make Orioles A Better Buy Than Nationals Why Good GTM Plans Go Bad Charlie Palmer Goes Italian With His New Times Square Eatery, AperiBar Oil rigs in Ølensvåg, Norway.

Here for now. Getty Images The Government has recently underlined its commitment to continuing oil and gas. However, this summer, the prime minister and minister for Trade and Industry set out a road map to illustrate how Norway can use skills learnt from the oil and gas industry to become a clean energy superpower.

“We’ve always been a green country in the sense we have hydropower and export our energy,” acknowledges Brand. “Norway is green at home, but we are still one of the world’s biggest exporters of oil and gas. So it’s a weird thing to think clean and act dirty.

” Siw Andersen Oslo Business Region “There is a tension between the profits from oil and cleaning up the industry to stop creating carbon emissions,” agrees Siw Andersen, CEO of the Oslo Business Region. “We talk about it a lot – and why we have the welfare system, how we can use it for the greater good and to transition to cleaner energy. ” The Norwegian Government has said that Norway’s long-term future rests on becoming a major exporter of renewable energy.

Numbers suggest startups are ahead of the curve. In 2020, private equity investments in Norwegian petroleum decreased sharply, while cleantech received three times more capital as in 2019. After lagging behind other Scandinavian capitals, Oslo is catching up.

From 2020 to 21, investments in startups and scaleups increased by 260% to 17. 5bn NOK (£1. 44 bn).

Last year, Norwegian private equity firms raised a record 20bn NOK, with a large proportion going into cleaner energy solutions. “Oslo is already the second largest startup hub for companies providing services to maritime innovation and third in renewable energy,” Andersen. “Our younger generations have been a big driver in the transition away from oil.

In 2015, when we had a crisis in the oil industry, fewer people were working, and many engineers began to work in other companies. Now we see people making their way to the startup economy in more sustainable industries. ” Only six years after its launch, Summa Equity owns the three largest impact funds in Europe, worth €2.

3bn. Reynir Indahl Summa Equity Summa’s investments include Tibber, the smart Norwegian consumer energy provider, and the Swedish waste recycling company Sortera. Theirs was the first fund to sign up to the UN’s sustainable climate goals.

The availability of capital and mentoring is good, says Indahl. “We are seeing more and more successful investors coming back to invest in Norway. Sometimes businesses just need an extra kick.

” Finding Unicorns So far, Oslo has spawned six unicorns. One is Norway’s most sustainable online grocer, Oda. It’s also both the cheapest, and the largest, with 70% of the market on sales of 2.

47bn NOK. Oda is Europe’s most efficient online grocer too, with an hourly pick rate of 212 units. Ocado, the largest online grocer in the U.

K. , has a pick rate of 172. With a huge gleaming warehouse recently opened at Liertoppen, 30 kilometres southwest of Oslo, efficiency is improving further.

All items for delivery come through the warehouse and go into same-size cardboard boxes. Switching from plastic bags to boxes in 2019 saved about 30% CO2 per order. One size cardboard boxes are crucial for reducing weight and emissions ODA “Using cardboard is a big part of saving weight on our vans which means we can deliver to more people with fewer vans,” observes Louise Fuchs, Head of Sustainability.

“It also helps us move to electric vehicles for all our deliveries. ” Oda has its own in-house logistics platform for everything, from purchasing and procurement to staffing, picking, and production. But it’s the small details which are perhaps most impressive.

Not a single loaf of bread is baked without being ordered. Fresh produce comes straight to consumers from the farm the same day. Its waste rate is just 0.

5% which the company claims is one-fifth of an ordinary supermarket’s. There are no BOGOF (Buy One, Get One Free) offers. Technology and automation are here to stay, but it doesn’t mean the human element is diminished.

At Oda, for instance, workers can be part of any union. Green and fair goes a long way. Louise Fuchs, Head of Sustainability at Oda JAVAD PARSA Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn .

Check out my website . Heather Farmbrough Editorial Standards Print Reprints & Permissions.