A fourth NIK fund announced

The majority of research intensive startups need additional investments and management assistance. BTO established Norsk Innovasjonskapital II AS (NIK II) in cooperation with Televenture to meet this challenge. Likewise, NTNU Technology Transfer and Kjeller Innovation have established respectively, NIK III and NIK I. Now, a fourth NIK fund is about to be established, designed to be open for all the eighth TTOs in Norway.

19.06.2014

Vidar Sannerhaugen, the former CEO of Kjeller Innovation, started the preliminary discussion about the experiences from the NIK funds during this year’s FORNY-conference. “We see that the NIK funds are a success formula that there is no reason to change. Now, we will establish NIK IV with a goal to collect 400 million in investment capital”, he said.

Five of BTOs projects have so far been included in NIK II, such as Bergen Bio AS, One2Touch AS and Q Pharmaceuticals. Another fund can potentially increase the amount of projects from the BTO portfolio that can be included, which is great news for the researchers in Bergen.

All the eighth TTOs in Norway will be invited to join the new NIK IV, through contributing with projects. The new NIK IV fund will increase the total amount invested in Norwegian innovations, which will benefit every research institution in Norway.

The CEO of One2touch, Morten Wiese, and the CEO of NIK II, Rune Rinnan, are shown in the picture.

Read the article from Forskningsrådet here.