Skal du hente penger? Da bør du abonnere på “On Norwegian Tech”

Nyhetsbrevet “On Norwegian Tech” fra Sondo-partner Kjetil Holmefjord gir deg den viktigste oversikten over investeringsnyheter, tech-trender og startup-dynamikken i Norge, på under ti minutter.

En startup-snakkis med substans

I en tid der nyhetsbildet for gründere ofte drukner i hype og clickbait overskrifter, er det befriende å få servert et nyhetsbrev som føles veldig relevant. Forutsetningen er at du interesserer deg for hva som skjer i Venturekapital-markedet og kanskje har tengt å hente inn penger for å fyre opp veksten i ditt selskap.

Kjetil Holmefjord, General Partner i Sondo Capital, skriver annenhver uke et nyhetsbrev som oppsummerer de viktigste bevegelsene i norsk tech – fra emisjoner og konkurser, til politiske utspill og refleksjoner om innovasjon og kapitalflyt.

Det er kort, presist og spekket med relevante lenker og personlige perspektiver. En liten gullgruve for alle som jobber i og for det norske oppstartsmiljøet, mener jeg.

Hva inneholder nyhetsbrevet?

“On Norwegian Tech” er skrevet i en lett, analytisk og samtidig personlig tone, og dekker:

• Kapitalinnhentinger og emisjoner (som Unlisted, Repasdo og Kezzler)
• Politiske og regulatoriske bevegelser som påvirker startups
• Tankevekkere om hvordan innovasjon faktisk skjer og utfordringer
• Internasjonale perspektiver (fra Elad Gil, Steven Sinofsky, Tomasz Tunguz m.fl.)
• Rapporter om konkurser og investeringer (f.eks Q1-25: 37 emisjoner vs. 60 i fjor, 24 konkurser vs. 13 osv.)

Nyhetsbrevet inneholder også humoristiske og ærlige refleksjoner, noe jeg setter stor pris på. Det er også en fast seksjon på slutten av nyhetsbrevet om klimaovervåking med konkrete tall om utviklingen av CO2. Dette gir også en indikasjon på Kjetil Holmefjord sitt miljøengasjement.

Hvem er Kjetil Holmefjord?

Kjetil har vært en sentral skikkelse i det norske innovasjonsmiljøet det siste tiåret. Her er noen høydepunkter fra karrieren hans:

• Tidligere Partner og Incubator Manager i Startuplab, Norges største tech-inkubator.
• Medgründer i StayAtMy, et tidlig bolig/startup-prosjekt.
• Har erfaring fra Innovation Norway i Silicon Valley (San Francisco).
• Tidligere Business Developer i Shopbox i København.

I dag leder han investeringene i Sondo Capital, hvor de typisk investerer mellom 2–5 millioner kroner i pre-seed og seed-stadium selskaper med norsk tilknytning. Porteføljen inkluderer kjente navn som Aiba, Enode, Dune, Strise og Databutton.

Hvordan abonnerer du?

Nyhetsbrevet sendes ut annenhver søndag og tar maks 5–7 minutter å lese. Du kan abonnere her:

Kjetil Holmefjords nyhetsbrev: On Norwegian Tech

Jeg mener dette ikke bare er et nyhetsbrev, men også et kompass for oss som bygger selskap i Norge. Det hjelper oss med å se mønstrene i det som skjer, og å forstå hvordan store og små bevegelser i markedet påvirker de selskapene vi jobber med. 

Forfatter: Berg Moe, Samfunnsleder i Gründerklubben

Les også: 5 tips for å forbedre din nettbutikk

Eksempel: “On Norwegian Tech” – Nyhetsbrevet fra 6. April 2025

Funding news: 

Ownership platform Unlisted has raised 5MNOK from Bømmelfjord and angels. Link

Digital product passport maker Repasdo has raised 3MNOK from Skagerak Capital, TiNitti, and Komm-In. Link

Wirescan, software for monitoring cables, has raised an undisclosed amount from Adara Ventures. Link

Fertiliser production company N2 Applied filed for bankruptcy, and Frode Strand-Nielsen and Jens Ulltveit-Moe have acquired the estate for an undisclosed amount. Link

PE investor Norvestor announced a new €500M fund focused on digital SMBs. Link

Other notable stories:

There’s an ongoing discussion about Innovation Norway these days, sparked by Joachim Høegh-Krohn’s post from the previous edition of this newsletter. It’s a multifaceted and complex topic, and Pål Næss’ comments on a few of the misunderstandings out there is worth reading. From my point of view, the relevant critique is mainly directed at politicians and not the people at Innovation Norway, who are mostly good and well-intending. The interesting question is not how to make Innovation Norway run better, but rather what Innovation Norway should/shouldn’t do. 

I won’t go into all aspects of this as that would turn this brief newsletter into a longer article, but I’ll add one perspective. Imagine if, instead of sending taxpayer money to startups as soft funding via one centralised, public organization, we decided startup investments were 90% tax deductible. We’d have a lot of money going into startups. It would come from people with skin in the game, working for free. And since we’d have many different people investing in startups, it would ensure a broad variety of founders and startups were funded. They might be diverse differently than the companies getting grants today, as private investors’ incentives suggest they’d care more about the financial upside of the opportunity, but they would still be diverse. There’s already a light version of this, but I don’t see why it couldn’t be expanded manifold. And FWIW, I’m not in favor of shutting down Innovation Norway, but I clearly see the benefit of significantly shifting policy in the direction suggested here. Links: IN critique, Nikolai Astrup response, Anders Mjåseth response,

Trygve Karper from Databutton rightly criticizing the government for planning to introduce the EU’s AI Act. Link

Interview with SINTEF CEO Alexandra Bech Gjørv on how Norway is underinvesting in research compared to other Nordic countries. Link

Birger Steen, Ivar Søvold, and Torkel Engeness argue for investing more in defense tech. Very much agree, and while we don’t have any defense companies in the Sondo portfolio yet, we can invest in defense tech. Unfortunately, many funds have mandates restricting them from doing such investments, and while this is likely to change, it will take some years, to the disadvantage of Europe. If you’re a defense tech founder, I’d love to chat, and also check out this list from Project A with a lot of European defense tech investors.  Link

In Q1’25, Shifter registered 37 funding rounds and 24 bankruptcies, while the numbers were 60 and 13 in the same quarter last year. Links: Funding rounds, Bankruptcies

Story on videoconferencing company Neat. The company has not gotten a lot of attention in local media so far, but with “ten thousands” of customers across the world and a valuation north of 5BNOK, they’re probably worth paying attention to. Link

A few revenue numbers for 2024:

EV charging company Amina: 33MNOK, payments company Dintero: 20.5MNOK, crowdfunding platform Dealflow: 3.3MNOK

From abroad: 

Steven Sinofsky with a sober take on MCPs, arguing they’re a new form of middleware. The tech is new, but the idea and function are not, and it is unlikely to work at scale because of incentives (vendors don’t want to give up their customer relationship). Instead of better tech, the way to make this work is most likely through regulatory changes, something Albert Wenger also made the case for a few years ago. Solid arguments with interesting lessons from previous attempts. Link

Elad Gil on the importance of distribution for companies as they scale. No matter how good the initial product is, the focus for scaling business should shift to distribution at a certain point. Link

Tomasz Tunguz on “the great liquidity shift”, highlighting how 71% of “exit dollars” came from secondaries, and he expects this to continue to be a meaningful contributor to liquidity for both employees and investors in startups. Link

Bill Gurley “in defense of the deck”. The post is 10 years old, but I revisited it a few days ago, and it’s just as relevant today so including here. If you’re a founder considering whether to use a deck while fundraising, go ahead and read this first. Link

Climate crisis tracker: The atmosphere is filling up with CO2. We must avoid a level of 450 parts per million. Current level: 427.9ppm (12 months ago: 425.6ppm, likely to exceed the target in 5-10 years).

Disclaimer: Databutton is a Sondo portfolio company.