Invesdor kicks off Norway’s equity crowdfunding market with 3 successful cases in 2016
PRESS RELEASE 10 January 2017
- Equity crowfunding platform Invesdor’s first year in Norway resulted in 3 Norwegian companies getting funded, including the NOK 6m funding of Kitemill AS
- All 3 companies received investments from several countries
- Three new Norwegian funding rounds already announced for 2017
- The funding round of Carepacks AS launches today with more than 40% already invested
In February of 2016 Invesdor became the first licensed equity crowdfunding platform to launch in Norway. Invesdor’s first year of helping Norwegian companies raise funding resulted in three successful funding rounds: Cloud Solutions AS in March, Bad Norwegian AS in August and Kitemill AS in December.
The most recent of the three, Kitemill, raised NOK 6.4m with its equity offering thus becoming the largest equity crowdfunding campaign in Norway to date. All three of the successful campaigns received cross-border investments from outside of Norway, most notably from Finland, Sweden and Germany.
“The economy in Norway is changing rapidly,” says Peter Moore, Equity director Norway at Invesdor. “I have seen big changes within just twelve months and am very impressed with the quality of companies I’ve been in contact with. Norway has many interesting growth stories just waiting to be told.”
However, currently digital fundraising in Norway is small. “The finance ecosystem needs to change with the economy. Currently it is all closed networks, manual and traditional – in many ways similar to what we saw in Finland three years ago,” says Moore. “We are going to digitalise it.”
There is demand for leaner and more outward-looking ways of fundraising amongst growing young companies. For Kitemill, the developer of a kite-based energy generation solution, the Invesdor campaign was the first experience with digital fundraising. “We are really pleased with the success of our campaign on Invesdor’s platform,” says Thomas Harklau, CEO of Kitemill AS. “It has been a very exciting process and we learnt a lot during the whole thing. We are now looking forward to executing our plans in 2017.”
For the beginning of 2017, Invesdor already has its next Norwegian campaign – Carepacks – launching at the time of writing.
CarePacks AS is an exciting company, as they want to make it easier for people to choose a healthier lifestyle without compromising the experience of taste as well as the quality of life. That's why they are offering healthy alternatives to snacks and candy delivered monthly straight to their customers. They also have a number of new product launches in the pipeline during 2017. “We see Invesdor's digital equity crowdfunding as a great way to expand our business network as well as getting a lot of dedicated ambassadors onboard, both nationally and internationally,” says May-Rita Kappfjell, CEO of CarePacks.
“I think that what I feed my body with should give me something positive in return. Since this is very important for me, I want to inspire and motivate people to choose healthier and to take smarter choices in their everyday lives, both between workouts and on weekends," says Ezinne Okparaebo, three-time Olympian and co-Founder of Carepacks.
Invesdor has two more campaigns announced for 2017, currently in preparation: TurtleNeck – accessories that solve everyday problems and Greenstat – portfolio of green projects and companies in Norway.
Contact
Peter Moore, Equity director Norway, Invesdor
peter.moore@invesdor.com, +358 458776650
Mikko Savolainen, Communications manager, Invesdor
mikko.savolainen@invesdor.com, +358407475205
Invesdor in brief
Invesdor is the Nordic market leader in equity crowdfunding platforms measured in invested capital and revenue in 2015. A financial technology (fintech) company founded in Finland in 2012, Invesdor operates an online investment platform that connects ambitious European growth companies with investors worldwide. So far Invesdor has helped raise more than 25 million euros and hosted 70 successful equity crowdfunding campaigns.
Invesdor's clients include private and publicly traded companies from Finland, the UK, Norway and Denmark as well as investors from more than 50 countries. Invesdor has offices in London and Helsinki.