This document provides an overview of funding options for startups and developers in Norway, including: 1. R&D tax deductions, innovation grants, and research grants that are available from the Norwegian government to support new projects and businesses. 2. Private funding sources like angel investors, accelerators, and venture capital that can provide seed funding, training, networking and larger investment rounds. 3. Alternative funding models like crowdfunding, customer pre-sales, and loans that may also be options to explore depending on the needs and stage of the startup.

1. Burnrate is Growing Startup Funding for Developers (in Norway)
!
2013-Oct-28
!
Amund Tveit
amund@atbrox.com - http://amundtveit.info - http://atbrox.com

2. Personal Reasons for starting?
You’re Fired!
You suffer from creative handcuffs
•
You have a big idea
.. or whenever opportunity or startup itch strikes
2

3. Personal Reasons for not starting?
You dislike taking risks
You thrive from stability
You prefer the Blue pill
3

4. Funding Overview
1. RD Tax Deductions
2. Innovation Grants
3. Research Grants
1. Angel Investors
4. IFU/OFU
2. Accelerators
5. Innovation Loans
3. Venture Capital
6. Crowd Funding (non-equity)
7. Customer Funded
4

5. RD Tax Deductions
•
•
www.skattefunn.no
How it works?
•
•
•
•
•
Apply for (multi-year) project, up to 11 MNOK/year (5.5)
Reporting (audit of costs and time)
Get tax deduction (if surplus), OR Money back (if deficit)
Dive into your academic network
Example from Trondheim: MazeMap - http://
naeringslivsavisa.no/2013/05/30/tradlose-trondheim-vi-harutviklet-en-verdensnyhet/
5

6. Innovation Grants
•
•
http://www.innovasjonnorge.no/Finansiering/etablerertilskudd/
How it works?
•
•
•
•
Apply when starting up - 300 KNOK (+)
Apply before market Introduction - 300-600 KNOK (+)
Parts of IN motivation - local employment, tax effects
Example from Trondheim: http://blog.verdandetechnology.com/
verdande-technology-investors-raising-8-million-for-thecontinued-enterprise-adoption-of-case-based-reasoning
6

7. Research Grants
•
•
http://ec.europa.eu/research/
How it works?
•
•
•
•
Project coalitions between universities and companies in
European Countries
Application (50-100 pages), project sizes: millions of Euros
Partner with the best academics you know
Example from Trondheim: Atbrox - http://atbrox.com/
2013/08/26/atbrox-has-become-a-partner-in-a-research-projecton-cloud-computing/
7

8. IFU/OFU
•
•
http://www.innovasjonnorge.no/Finansiering/ifuofu/
How it works?
•
•
•
•
•
OFU - 3 parts: IN, Public org. customer and you
IFU - 3 parts: IN, Private company customer and you
Potentially significant amounts (millions of NOK)
Partner with big/well-known (potential) customer
Example from Trondheim: Boost - http://www.adressa.no/
nyheter/okonomi/article7914743.ece
8

9. Innovation Loans
•
•
http://innovasjonnorge.no/Finansiering/Innovasjonslan/
How it works?
•
•
•
•
•
2 types: low-risk loans and innovation loans
Amounts up to millions of Norwegian kroner
In many ways similar to your house mortgage
Note: do you really want to take on debt?
Norwegian Example: Bipper - http://bippernytt.blogspot.no/
2010/06/denne-uken-fikk-bipper-den-gode-nyheten.html
9

10. Crowd Funding (non-equity)
•
•
Services: IndiGoGo and Kickstarter
How it works?
•
•
•
•
•
Describe your project, schedule and requested amounts
What backers get (e.g. diplomas, early releases of product etc)
Works best for: those that have a demonstrable prototype
Amounts: from low thousands to millions of $
Norwegian Example (1.5M$) - http://www.kickstarter.com/
projects/redthread/dreamfall-chapters-the-longest-journey
10

11. Customer Funded
•
How it works?
•
•
•
You get advance funding for developing for a customer
And keep all rights to resell it as a product or service
Advantage: down-to-earth wrt customer needs early on
11

12. Seed/Angel Investors
•
Typically 2 types:
•
•
•
Affluent Individuals (serial entrepreneurs)
How it works:
•
•
•
•
Professional Investors
Communication through platforms, e.g. angel.co
Or through personal networks (e.g. linkedin)
Amounts: thousands to low millions of $ (typically a coalition of angels)
Example: Irish startup raising $230K in 8 days using Linkedin - http://
www.businessinsider.com/irish-company-raises-230000-using-onlylinkedin-2010-1
12

13. Accelerators
•
•
•
Training Camp (one to a few months)
Value(Network+training) Value(funding)?
YCombinator:
•
•
•
•
Guaranteed follow-up financing
Amounts: 0 - few hundred K$’ish
Innovasjon Norge TINC (1 month Palo Alto)
Oslo: StartupLab.no
13

14. Venture Capital
•
•
Typically for large investment amounts (1M$)
When your company is ready to scale
•
•
•
•
Rough rule of thumb: min. revenue of $1.5-2M
Long-term commitment
Many rounds of financing (e.g. series A, B, C, D, E)
Their goal: big liquidity event (IPO or MA)
14

15. How to Convince Investor?
!
!
•
•
•
•
•
•
Competitive Advantage
Scalable and recurring revenue
Great Team
Conservative Pre-money Valuation (see angel.co/valuations )
Disruptive
Potential for big exit (sale or IPO)
15

16. Approaching Silicon Valley
•
A Working Demo says more than 1000 words
•
•
Innovation House in Palo Alto is a must to visit
•
•
•
many Norwegian startups
Good networking arena
You probably know someone who knows (e.g. via linkedin)
•
•
Remember: Execution Idea in Silicon Valley
6 degrees is typically 2-3 within IT
Personal Experience: blogging can interesting open doors
16

17. Funding Trends
•
Globalization - Everyone/many invests anywhere in the world?
•
•
•
Non-Nordic VCs (European and US) investors
“underweighted” in Scandinavia
Transparancy - Investor dealflow becoming commodity?
•
•
VCs doing (low-profile) seed/early-stage investments
angel.co - Angel List Syndicates (individuals doing series-A/B)
Crowdfunding (equity-based) - In its infancy, but can have
massive impact?
•
growvc.com
17