We make fish farming sustainable using software and machine learning
Bryton Shang, Aquabyte
Alliance was the first VC to invest, and has supported us every step of the way
Karl Munthe-Kaas, Kolonial.no
We are improving the ability to quickly and more sustainably deploy and operate renewable energy assets around the world
Ole-Erik Endrerud, Shoreline
Alliance supported us throughout the roller coaster ride of revolutionizing the container freight industry
Patrik Berglund, Xeneta
We bring transparency and efficiency to payments
Peter Keenan, Apexx Global
Our conversational AI is a game changer for customer interaction
Lars Selsås, Boost.ai
New ways of financing small companies has huge impact
Halvor Lande, Aprila Bank
We are Alliance Venture
We believe that the most successful companies of our time will be the ones solving real problems. The entrepreneurs that improve the way we live in a scalable way, will create long term profit as well as increase environmental and social sustainability.
We invest in exceptional early-stage tech companies founded by entrepreneurs with global ambitions. We believe that investing in a founder is a mutual partnership, and we know that building great and valuable companies requires active support and takes time.
We are a Nordic venture capital firm run by experienced venture capitalists, operators and founders that helped create billion dollar companies.
We invest in nordic entrepreneurs with global ambitions
The latest
Aquabyte raised 10M USD
Portfolio company Aquabyte raised 10M USD from ArcTern Ventures and existing investors.
Read more (in Norwegian)
Follow-on investments all-time high
H1 2020 ended up being an all-time high for follow-on investment in the Alliance Venture portfolio. Eight companies raised a total of 479 MNOK (approx. 50 MUSD). Six of the funding rounds have already been announced, Apexx Global, Shoreline, Aprila Bank, Boost.ai, Novelda and poLight, while two deals are not yet public.
Apexx raised $8 million Series A
London-based payments platform APEXX Global has raised an $8 million Series A from new and existing investors, including Forward Partners, MMC and Alliance Ventures
Read more at tech.eu
Launching Alliance Venture Delta
We are very happy and proud to be able to close a sizable early-stage venture fund in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak. This will enable us to invest in a very challenging time for the startup ecosystem. And though this post is written while most of us are still in lock-down it is our firm belief that we as a society will fight through these difficult times.
Responsible investing during the COVID-19 crisis
Now is the time for investors to prove themselves as great long-term partners to entrepreneurs and that it’s not just a marketing gimmick.
FPGA inventor Xilinx invests in Swarm64
Swarm64, the leader in FPGA-accelerated database management solutions, today announced that Xilinx, the FPGA inventor, has invested in Swarm64. The two companies will work together to deliver high-performance analytic databases that are easy to deploy and scale at a lower total cost of ownership (TCO) than existing solutions in the market.
See press release.
Megacool acquired by Medal.tv
Superside, a new Alliance Venture win-win investment
Providing opportunity for global design talent to serve and impact Enterprises.
New investment in Superside
Superside, provider of hassle-free design services for enterprise teams, just raised a 3.5 MUSD funding round. Alliance Venture participated in the round with Freestyle Capital, High Alpha Ventures, and Y Combinator.
See TechCrunch article.
Alliance Venture co-leads seed round in Sanity.io
Sanity.io has raised a 2.4 MUSD seed round led by Heavybit and Alliance Venture joined by a group of angel investors from the developer community. Sanity delivers a Structured Content Platform for modern developers. See announcement and article from DN. (Norwegian)
Confessions of a reality TV VC bad guy
I’d like to congratulate the team of LeadX, Smart Innovation Norway, and Nordic Media Lab on the documentary miniseries from their recent…
Alliance Venture invests in Altua
Altua, the developer of Grunt – the tool that gives PowerPoint users superpowers, announced a new funding round of 16 MNOK (1.9 MUSD) to take Grunt to market. Alliance Venture, a new investor, joined the syndicate of existing investors. See article from Finansavisen (in Norwegian).
Xeneta raises 70 MNOK (8.2 MUSD) in new funding
Xeneta, the leading freight price benchmarking and market intelligence platform, has raised a new funding round of 70 MNOK (8.2 MUSD) led my Investinor. Existing shareholders Smedvig Capital, Creandum, Alliance Ventures, and Alden participated in the funding round. See announcement from Investinor.
Novelda secures 15 MUSD in growth funding for its XeThru radar sensor business
Novelda, a developer and supplier of adaptive smart sensors, has closed a USD 15 million funding round to further develop and take the XeThru radar sensor technology into high volume applications. Alliance Venture participated in the round led by Investinor. See the company’s announcement.
Digesting impressions from SaaStr Annual 2019
I have been a SaaStr fan and follower of the SaaStr community and best practices for years, yet I attended my first SaaStr Annual last week. The conference prides itself on “actionable advice and learnings to help grow SaaS businesses from $0 to $100M ARR”.
PoLight announces successful IPO raising 130 MNOK
poLight ASA today announced the successful completion of its initial public offering (IPO). The first day of trading of the company’s shares on the Oslo Stock Exchange is expected to be Monday 1 October 2018 under the ticker OSE: PLT. In the offering poLight has raised 130 MNOK in new funds. See the company’s announcement.
“Why are you here?”
… is probably the most frequent question I get, when I explain who I am and what I do. This is not a hostile question or bullying tactic, but simply an indication of genuine curiosity and some confusion.
Boost.ai secures 5 MUSD Series A investment from Alliance Venture
Boost.ai, provider of the world’s most robust virtual assistant platform, announced today the closing of a new round of financing from Alliance Venture. Boost.ai has developed the world’s most robust natural language processing (NLP) algorithms. These algorithms enable virtual assistants built on the James® platform to respond to customer enquiries quickly, efficiently and with unrivaled accuracy. The financing will be used to strengthen the technical and commercial teams within boost.ai, and to support expansion beyond the Nordics. See article (in Norwegian).
Aquabyte raises 3.5 MUSD seed funding; aims to transform fish farming through computer vision and machine learning
Aquabyte, a startup applying computer vision and machine learning models to dramatically optimize fish farming efficiency, today announced a 3.5 MUSD Seed Round of funding co-led by Costanoa Ventures and New Enterprise Associates (NEA) with participation from Alliance Venture, Princeton University and other investors. See press release, Forbes article and Shifter article (Norw).
Arundo Analytics raises 25MUSD Series A funding to bring large-scale machine learning into asset-heavy industries
Arundo Analytics, a software company powering advanced analytics in heavy industry and Alliance Venture portfolio company, announced today an initial closing of 25 MUSD on its Series A financing round. To date, the company has raised over $32.5 million since its founding in 2015. “This investment is a validation of the product and market strategy our team pursued over the last two years,” said Tor Jakob Ramsøy, CEO of Arundo. See article.
Swarm64 raises 12.5 MUSD Series B round led by Intel Capital
Alliance Venture portfolio company, Swarm64 – an enabler of real-time analytics for high velocity and big data – has raised 12.5 MUSD Series B round led by Intel Capital. The funding will be used to strengthen Swarm64’s position as a global leader in FPGA-based accelerators for relational databases. Alliance Venture participated in the round. See press release in English and article in Norwegian.
Aprila Bank has raised 170 MNOK (20 MUSD) in funding
Alliance Venture invested early alongside FJLabs and was later joined by several reputable Norwegian investors. Aprila delivers a fully automated on-the-spot financing solution for SMEs with an innovative distribution model. The solution will address the SME funding gap through a seamless integration with established ERP solutions and accounting services. See article in Norwegian.