Earlier this year, we introduced you to 10 promising Norwegian startups to watch in 2021. Today, we’re taking a closer look to Oslo. With several incubator-like startup investment programs such as StartupNorway and StartupLab and startup communities like Mesh, Oslo is a booming startup city worth exploring. The Norwegian capital recently also made it into our annual ranking of Europe’s biggest startup hubs.
By the way: Did you know that female participation in the workforce in Norway is exceptionally high? This is also reflected in the number of women in startup teams. We also applaud Norway’s ambitious push for a greener economy. These are just two of many factors that motivated us to dig deeper into Norway’s number one startup hub, Oslo.
We’ve scouted promising early-stage startups based in Oslo, founded in the last 3 years, taking into consideration team size, funding, growth rate, innovation, and market size. Here are 10 super promising Oslo-based startups worth following in 2021 and beyond:
Norwegian Block Exchange is a pioneering cryptocurrency exchange, custodian, and payment system. Since its founding in 2018, NBX has raised over €5.7 million to develop a reliable marketplace for buying, selling, and making payments in cryptocurrencies or other digital assets with convenient fiat gateways. NBX is open for both individuals and companies from 190 countries around the world to start trading securely and easily. While cryptocurrency and digital asset trading have been until recently shrouded in mystery to all but the most tech-savvy investors, NBX aims to make cryptocurrency exchange a part of all kinds of investors’ everyday experiences.
Empower is a digital platform incentivizing the collection, tracking, and recycling of plastic. Born in 2018, the sustainability-drive startup has raised over €1.7 million to build an infrastructure for a circular economy. Empower aims to develop a plastic exchange scheme on a global scale by using blockchain. Blockchain allows tracking and monetisation of plastic, even in third-world countries where the majority of the population is unbanked. By tracking from on-the-ground plastic pickup operations to eventual reuse in other products, increasing the value of waste plastic and making the collection a viable, revenue-generating activity for the world’s underprivileged populations.
ShiftX is on a mission to challenge the status quo on how organizations visualize, communicate and collaborate to improve their operations. Since its founding in 2018, the startup has raised over €1.4 million to build a platform where teams can map out their internal processes, identify who is supposed to do what when, and understand how workflows are connected throughout the workplace. It can also be used as a customer journey tool for mapping out important touchpoints, systems, actors, and issues. Regardless of the industry or team, ShiftX allows users to gain control of as-is scenarios to see how they can optimize to-be scenarios.
Equality Check is a platform for crowdsourced reviews about equality in the workplace. Founded in 2018, the startup has raised over €1.3 million to create a better workplace for everyone with transparency and accountability through their anonymous platform. Employees can leave anonymous reviews about equal opportunity, workplace culture, work/life balance, the management’s commitment to diversity, and more. Employers become aware of how their employees feel about their culture, giving employers the opportunity to improve. Equality Check’s approach combines qualitative and quantitative data for workplaces to go from insight to action.
Plaace is a data-driven platform to match businesses with the most favorable rental premises. Founded in 2020, Plaace has raised nearly €1.2 million to give tenants the opportunity to establish themselves in the most lucrative premises, and property owners the chance to choose the concepts that best suit their property. The startup uses external data sources and analysis to help retail property owners, tenants, and brokers to define strategies, match with candidates and collaborate, unlocking the full potential of commercial properties and giving tenants the best conditions for success.
Savvie translates large volumes of data into concrete bite-sized actions which bakery and café owners can utilize to improve their bottom line every day. Founded in 2020, the startup has raised nearly €800K to help food businesses make the right decisions for optimizing their operations and increasing profitability while reducing waste at its source. Savvie’s powerful algorithms provide customers with customized recommendations and real-time insights about their businesses and enable them to keep track of what and how much is left over at the end of each day to optimize ordering.
Campanyon aims to make nature accessible to everyone by offering a space where campers and hosts can create meaningful connections with each other, explore their surroundings and share and protect nature. Born in 2020, the travel startup has raised around €500K. Campanyon’s platform encourages campers and travelers to explore and book a variety of experiences such as camping sites, RV parks, glamping, cabins, tents, and hammocks. Travelers and hosts can interact before the trip, creating a connection that is more than just a transaction before the experience.
Modulize aims to improve physical surroundings through technology. Born in 2020 out of a search for ways to reduce waste in construction, Modulize has raised over €235K to build software that finally unlocks the true potential of prefabrication and modular construction and make construction faster, cheaper and greener, all without sacrificing quality or character. Modulize aims to be the operating system for the entire prefabrication value chain, with their software solution for design, planning, and procurement, getting all stakeholders on the same page, at all times.
Varig is a sustainability software that makes it easy for building owners, managers, and tenants to work systematically to improve their portfolio’s climate footprint. Launched in 2019, software translates building-relevant data into concrete measures linked to the UN’s sustainability goals. With a focus on sustainability, Varig provides documented insight for selected buildings in a complete and user-friendly overview, all converted to CO2 equivalents. Varig aims to increase the parties’ awareness of sustainability and motivate behavior change.
D-Fetch was founded in 2019 and is a business optimization platform built specifically for fitness club operators. They identify growth opportunities and provide concrete, actionable recommendations in real-time that will improve the workout experience for gym club members while increasing productivity and cutting costs for the operator. Their non-invasive sensor technology collects millions of data points enabling fitness club operators to optimize the management and maximize the usage of their clubs, assets, and people. This is driving new profitability through better investments, streamlined operations, improved staff engagement, and happier members.
By the way: If you’re a corporate or investor looking for exciting startups in a specific market for a potential investment or acquisition, check out our Startup Sourcing Service!
