Norwegian Investinor (and yes, naturally they are a Cleantech Scandinavia member) is already into the cleantech industry through investments in electric car-maker Think and Metallkraft (another cleantech fast-grower doing recycling in the solar industry). They opened their bank account before the holidays, investing 6.3 million euro in Innotech Solar, making it one of the bigger cleantech investments during the year. Innotech Solar was founded by people from within the solar industry, who saw a market opportunity in the solar cells that where not used due to low efficiency. Innotech Solar buys these cells and has the technology and production capacity to upgrade them, making them profitable. It is recycling and reuse in an industry where access to raw material has been crucial. The company was established in spring 2008, has grown to 42 employees, and already has sales offices in Germany and China. The company has previously managed to attract VC money from two of the most active cleantech investors in the Nordics - Northzone Ventures and Sustainable Technologies Fund.
Kebony is another Norwegian company that managed to secure their money end 2009 by completing a 12 million euro financing round led by the Environmental Technologies Fund. The company supplies a hardwood alternative using wood modification technology to transform conventional, fast growing, wood species into wood with the properties of hardwood (trees that end up as hardwood are otherwise typically found scattered in the world’s rainforests, where they are eagerly sought after but expensive to harvest in a sustainable way). Their hardwood is on the pic below.
It is particularly fitting that a couple of Norwegian companies end the year since Norway had an impressive number of big cleantech deals throughout the year, with companies such as ReVolt, Norsun and THINK all finalising big investment rounds. So what do u think - Norway - from oil to cleantech nation?
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