Top Unicorns in Norway

Norway has a strong, stable economy, and its central location, along with its membership to the European Economic Area (EEA), has made it one of the top countries in the world for establishing new business.

In fact, Nordiq HQ has gone as far as saying that Norway has the potential to be the top country in the world for startups. This assertion may be bold and confident, but it’s based on some pretty real factors – Norway’s enormous wealth, highly educated and skilled workforce, its efficient government systems and so much more.

Of course, that’s not to say that everything’s perfect. There’s still significant room for improvement, as the gap between where Norway is now and where it could be is fairly large. The country has massive potential that could be achieved by means of the tweaking of a few specific things – including tax regulations, budgeting and more.

The other significant factor to consider is that Norway isn’t actually part of the European Union (EU). Now, that’s not necessarily a bad thing in all respects, especially since it is part of the EEA, but membership to the EU could have positive results of small Norwwegian businesses as well as attracting people to launch companies in the country.

Top 4 Unicorns in Norway

As of 2024, five different Norwegian businesses have managed to make their way into the unicorn “hall of fame”, so to speak, and as of September of this year, four of these companies are still both privately owned and valued at over $1 billion.

Cognite: $1.6 Billion

Launched in 2016, Cognite is the developer of a data management platform that is specifically designed for industries including oil, gas, manufacturing, power, utilities and shipping.

Cognite offers a range of services, including OT and IT data contextualization, case data, data models, production with automated data delivery and more, all of which allows employers to embrace the potential of really complex and advanced analytics.

The company was founded by John Lervik Ph.D, currently Cognite’s Chief Strategy and Development Officer. Cognite is now valued at $1.6 billion after bringing in $113 million in 2022.

reMarkable: $1 Billion

ReMarkable, based in Oslo, Norway, is a tech startup that creates a paper tablet with the intention of having it replace printed documents and notebooks.

The company was founded in 2013 by Magnus Wanberg, and today, it’s worth $1 billion.

This startup aims to provide people with a user-centric solution to paper notes and records, allowing everything to be tracked meticulously and personally while ensuring nothing gets lost.

Dune Analytics: $1 Billion

Dune Analytics, currently valued at $1 billion, is the developer of blockchain SQL software that is designed and intended to create and share analysis of crypto data.

The purpose behind the software is to allow users to create analyses and queries, visualise the results of these queries into graphs and then share them with other interested parties as part of the community. This gives people an easy and accessible way to extract and visualise data like never before.

The company was founded in 2018 by Fredrik Haga and Mats Olsen, current CEO and CTO respectively, and as of 2022, Dune Analytics was valued at $1 billion.

Gelato: $1.05 Billion

Gelato, based in Oslo, is the developer of an on-demand printing platform. It allows users to create customised print products, and it provides print and logistic services as per users’ requests while simultaneously removing the seller’s need to manage inventory and cross-border shipping. This enables creators, entrepreneurs and global brands to be able to sell customised products all over the world.

The company was founded by Henrik Jansen and Oliver Ridley in 2007, and after having received $240 million in funding at the end of 2021, the company exceeded the $1 billion requirement for unicorns. Today, Gelato is valued at $1.05 billion.