Abelia (the Business Association of Norwegian knowledge- and technology based enterprises) has for several years argued that the Government should establish a new pre-seed scheme to mobilize private capital for the early stage innovative industry. Now Abelia and FIN (The Association for innovation companies in Norway) together have presented a proposal for the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries.
The proposal – «Innretning av nasjonal pre-såkornordning – innspill fra Abelia og FIN» – will trigger more private capital through public risk mitigation in an early phase. This is done without establishing new organizations or structures, but through organizing a mechanism for a more efficient interaction between Innovation Norway, incubators and TTOs (Technology Transfer Offices) on the one hand and private investors on the other. The ambition is to ensure that entrepreneurial businesses grow faster and succeed internationally at a time when the Norwegian economy must be readjusted.
You can read Abelia and FINs proposal here (no longer available).
Anders Haugland, Managing Director of BTO and Chairman of FIN, attended the meeting with Dilek Ayhan (H), State Secretary of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries.
– Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries is interested in strengthening the incentives for moving private capital earlier along the startup chain, without generating more bureaucracy. A solution where the public funding agencies and the national network of incubators and TTOs cooperate, will be a strategy to make sure the incentives ultimately benefits the targeted groups of startups. We believe that activation of private capital is a good thing and this is the most effective path to get more value creation from the significant investments already made in Public Research and Development. We believe that a pre-seed fund can have this effect hence increase the output of government investments, says Haugland.
In the meeting State Secretary Ayhan agreed to the need to mobilize more private capital into the new and knowledge-intensive industry. She also seems to recognise that TTOs and incubators have a key role to make this happen in a larger scale.
– The pre-seed scheme Abelia now proposes enables the Government to facilitate stronger growth for new business through increased mobilization of private capital. Pressure for restructuring of the Norwegian economy is increasing, and our aspiration is that the pre-seed scheme is launched in conjunction with the revised national budget in May, says Håkon Haugli, Managing Director of Abelia to Abelia.no
Main picture (from left): Daniel Ras-Vidal (Manager, FIN), Hilde Widerøe Wibe (Director of government affairs, Abelia), Anders Haugland (Managing Director BTO and Chairman of FIN), Dilek Ayhan (State Secretary of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries), Terje Handeland (Managing Director, Ipark), Karl-Christian Agerup (Managing director, Oslotech) and Håkon Haugli (Managing Director, Abelia)