Norwegian tech startup gains momentum

The story is almost like a fairy tale. In just two years, the company has grown from three to 17 employees. Founders Hilde Kristin Njøten, Jan-Tore Horn and Helene Margrethe Bøhler have secured millions in funding and partnerships with several well-known companies, including RWE, Corio, Hafslund, Cloudberry and Seagust.

'Things are going really well. We have the wind in our sails – literally,' says Njøten.

The business idea is simple: to use algorithms and artificial intelligence to optimise the siting of wind power. By combining data, analysis and optimisation while making better use of time in the early stages, more high-quality wind projects can become a reality.

The idea emerged while the three founders were working together at the software company Spacemaker.

'When we worked at Spacemaker, we helped develop software for planning construction projects. Over time, we came up with the idea of creating something similar for other industries,' Njøten explains.

The main reason for choosing the wind industry was that the world needs more green energy – and plenty of it. The wind industry is set to scale up significantly in the coming years, which means many new and complex projects will need to be planned.

'The challenge is that the wind industry currently has a low level of digitalisation and lacks adequate tools for planning wind farms at an early stage,' Njøten explains.

And that sparked the idea for Vind Technologies. The company is developing new software that enables wind energy developers worldwide to plan and design their projects in the best possible way.

Many industry players still use manual processes for screening and for designing wind farms.

'A great deal of the work during the project phase is done via email, PDFs and Word documents. This complicates the process and wastes time unnecessarily,' says Njøten.

The company offers an optimisation platform that enables even more energy to be generated. By combining data, visualisation and analytics, the platform gives stakeholders insight into how much energy a wind farm can produce based on local wind data.

We have provided the company with advisory services and millions of kroner in funding for the project.

Through our broad range of services in funding, advisory, competence building, networks and promotion, we aim to give innovative companies such as Vind Technologies the support they need to achieve their goals. Our financial services also help companies reduce risk through grants during the development stage and loans for further commercialisation and growth.

Our support has made an enormous difference to Vind Technologies. The company has received several grants, including funding for market validation during the early startup phase and for commercialisation. It has also benefited greatly from our advisers in Norway and internationally. The largest award was NOK 11,900,000 from the Environmental Technology Scheme, which the company received in 2023.

- With a vision to 'help bring more green energy to the world, faster, while protecting nature and the people around us', Vind Technologies has quickly built a skilled team well equipped to tackle the challenges of the future.

The comment comes from Christer Sørlund, Senior Financial Adviser at Innovation Norway. He describes the founders of Vind Technologies as a professional, solution-oriented team who work hard to achieve their goals.

From the outset, the company has focused on developing its product in close dialogue with the market. It has successfully established both professional and commercial partnerships with a strong selection of relevant customers and partners.

'The business idea is to simplify, optimise and streamline current best practice – in this case, the planning and design of offshore wind projects,' says Sørlund.

- It aligns well with the green transition, including the Norwegian government's target of installing 30 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2040 and the European Commission's target of reaching a total capacity of 300 GW in Europe by 2050.

If Njøten at Vind Technologies is right, the future looks bright for the new technology company, thanks to close collaboration with major industry players and support from us, among others.

'We believe we can make a difference in the industry. We find that industry players are helpful, curious and open to adopting new technology,' she says.