Norwegian health technology succeeds

This scheme is part of Horizon Europe, the world's largest research and innovation programme. The companies receive €75,000 in funding, as well as coaching and accelerator services. We are the national contact point for the programme and have supported the companies throughout the application process.

'This shows that Norway is at the forefront of early-stage technology companies led by women, and that we have a strong foundation for creating Norwegian health technology export successes. The funding is a seal of approval from the EU and shows that the company has developed a technology with significant potential,' says our CEO, Håkon Haugli.

The EU is struggling to increase the proportion of women in leadership roles at technology companies. Today, fewer than one in five technology companies has a woman in a leadership role or as a founder or co-founder. WomenTech EU was launched in 2022 to address this challenge.

WomenTech EU targets early-stage, women-led deep-tech companies. The female applicant must be the company's founder or co-founder and hold a senior management role (CEO, CTO or equivalent).

The support includes a grant of €75,000 for your company to fund the first steps in the innovation process. You can use it to grow your company by further developing your business plan and growth strategy, exploring market opportunities, and identifying potential partners and investors.

Winners will also be offered coaching and mentoring, as well as opportunities to take part in a range of competence-building and networking events across Europe.

These are the companies that have made it through the selection process for WomenTech EU:

Authera was founded in mid-2022 as a 'spin-out' from the University of Oslo and Oslo University Hospital by Simone Mester, Torleif Tollefsrud Gjølberg, Jan Terje Andersen and Inger Sandlie. Authera develops biological medicines to treat eye diseases such as nAMD, which causes vision loss in a growing patient population estimated to exceed 50 million by 2040. Up to 40% of patients respond poorly to current treatments or develop resistance over time, creating a significant need for new treatment options. To meet this need, Authera is developing a therapeutic antibody with a unique mechanism of action. As part of its business model, Authera also offers other biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies a technology platform for testing biological medicines.

- We are incredibly proud and delighted to receive the Women TechEU grant. It not only gives us funding to continue our development, but also makes us part of a European network of women leaders. We will gain access to mentors and tailored guidance, which we hope will help take our company to the next level and strengthen our professional development. This is important recognition for Authera, our technology platform, our team and me as CEO. With more than 800 applicants, the competition was fierce, so being selected means a great deal to us. It gives us a strong foundation for further growth and development. Innovation Norway encouraged us to apply and provided valuable tips and advisory throughout the application process, which definitely helped strengthen our application,' says Simone Mester, CEO of Authera.

Klyv Therapeutics AS was established in 2023 to develop new drug candidates for treating heart failure and fibrosis. We are addressing one of the major public health challenges of our time: damage to organs such as the heart and kidneys caused by risk factors including high blood pressure, obesity and diabetes. These conditions significantly increase mortality and morbidity, while current treatment options remain limited. There is therefore a major unmet need for new and improved treatment strategies. 

Klyv Therapeutics' approach is to protect organs by preventing their harmful response to stress. The company is now developing drug candidates based on a novel target for cardiac fibrosis discovered through research at the University of Oslo. Klyv Therapeutics is based at Oslo Science Park and works with European R&D partners to realise this vision.

The company is led by Maria Vistnes, a cardiologist, researcher and the principal inventor of the new treatment approach. She co-founded the company with Andreas Berg, a former mentor in UiO's SPARK programme who has experience in the pharmaceutical industry. Drawing on her biological understanding of the therapeutic target and clinical experience in treating patients with heart failure, she aims to bring this discovery to market as a product that benefits patients.

'The recognition from Women TechEU means so much to us! It provides external validation that we have a solid, promising plan with significant potential. We will use the funding to further develop our early-stage drug candidates. In addition, the support from our mentor and the Women TechEU network will give both the company and me as its leader valuable momentum and expertise, helping us make the right strategic choices as we move forward,' says Maria Vistnes.

Pioneer Research is a biotechnology company developing a drug-screening platform that could support the development of medicines to treat chemotherapy-resistant and incurable cancers. The technology uses microproteins, a little-understood part of the human genome, to enable the development of inhibitors for so-called ‘difficult’ therapeutic targets. Founded in 2022, the company has received several Norwegian grants, including from the Norwegian Cancer Society and us, working closely with the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Oslo. Marie Rogne is one of the company’s founders and its CEO.

'We are very grateful and pleased to have the opportunity to take part in this EU project. It opens the door to a wider European network and offers a tailored, innovative programme that can help us strengthen and develop our company. It is also valuable to discuss business strategies with an experienced mentor who takes the time to understand our company and the challenges we are addressing as we bring our product to market,' says Marie Rogne, CEO of Pioneer Research.

Seald is a biotechnology company specialising in dynamic, personalised cancer treatment. It was founded by Tove Cecilie Viebe, a surgeon and former senior consultant at Oslo University Hospital. Seald is developing a diagnostic service that first tests cancer medicines on a live sample of the patient's own tumour. The aim is to find a better match between each cancer patient and their treatment. A better match enables more effective cancer treatment and a dynamic, sustainable use of public healthcare budgets. Seald also holds worldwide patents for innovative drug combinations to treat biliary tract cancer, an aggressive form of cancer with a high mortality rate and a significant unmet need for new cancer medicines.

'The support from Women TechEU is an important recognition of our work and specifically addresses a challenge faced by women entrepreneurs: the lack of gender-neutral access to private venture capital. There are no equivalent national funding schemes, which makes this EU initiative particularly valuable. The EU grant gives us unique access to networks and valuable specialist expertise to develop our company further. We are now preparing a clinical trial that will bring us closer to optimised, personalised treatment for each cancer patient, while also advancing our patented, innovative drug combinations,' says Tove Cecilie Viebe, CEO of Seald.