Oslo-based deep tech startup OTee has successfully closed an investment round of €1.25 million marking the largest first funding round out of Antler Norway. The investment was led by Norwegian venture capital fund RunwayFBU and Estonian fund Superangel, with participation from Antler, StartupLab, and angel investors including Gunnar Evensen, Trond Riiber Knudsen, Snorre Larsen and Olav Slupphaug. This substantial funding not only propels OTee into a new operational phase but also solidifies its position as a robust international startup from the Nordics.
Founded in 2022, OTee provides an industrial-grade engineering platform for designing, deploying, and managing virtual control systems based on open architecture and standards. At its core, the OTee platform is a potential game-changer enabling cheaper, faster, more sustainable, and secure industrial control systems for millions of automation engineers worldwide.
OTee’s CEO and Co-founder, Henrik Pedersen, with 11 years of experience at ABB, firmly believes that a disruption of the Industrial automation (OT) domain is at our doorstep. “The technology and the business model in OT are similar to what IT had in the 90s and early 2000s. Every industrial asset has its own locally installed control system, locked into one vendor, with an expensive life cycle management that has a focus on maintaining, not improving. Based on the customer interest we are seeing, we can safely say that the market is changing, driven by customers asking for open control system architectures, and the Industry 4.0 community. We want to be a driving force in this upcoming disruption, and help end-customers and their automation partners modernize operations with no physical intervention,” said Henrik.
“We have followed OTee since 2022 and are impressed with how the team has worked relentlessly to solve key issues within Operational Technology today,” commented the Investor Manager at RunwayFBU, Peder Hjermann. “In our opinion, the open standard SaaS platform can unlock the true power of industrial automation and new opportunities within artificial intelligence and machine learning. The strategic partnership with RunwayFBU and Superangel not only provides substantial financial support but also access to an extensive industrial network,” added Peder.
OTee’s applications range across almost all industries, showcasing the company’s limitless market potential. Focused on virtual Programmable Logic Controllers (vPLCs), OTee distinguishes itself by offering a SaaS platform built on a cybersecurity zero-trust architecture, that decouples the software and the hardware. This is making it possible to modernize an old control system with no physical intervention and remove the vendor lock-in.
Regarding the team, OTee was co-founded by Henrik Pedersen and Radek Janik, who met during the Antler cohort in 2022. Today, they are a team of eight. “The team is crucial to our success, and we are putting a lot of energy into finding the top global talents that will change this industry. Currently, we have a unique and diverse team: two from Ukraine, two from Poland, one from Iran, two from Norway, and one recently joined OTee from Germany. They are all at the level where they could’ve joined any high-performing organization, and we are very proud that they have chosen OTee,” explained up Henrik.
“With their cutting-edge engineering platform, OTee empowers millions of automation engineers to effortlessly create and manage virtual control systems. We are confident in the team’s expertise and innovative approach to have a global impact on the industrial automation sector. Superangel is excited to participate in the investment into OTee and to support them on this journey,” added Investment Associate at Superangel, Céline Pattyranie.
