Start-up Stories
Read the stories of some of the great start-ups we have worked or been working with.
HAYK offers an environmentally friendly car sharing service located easily accessible in housing cooperatives.
Today there are 1.2 billion cars in the world. 28% of the world’s population live in the world’s 4037 cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants. Pollution of city cores are a political problem several authorities want solutions to. HAYK want to reduce the fleet of fossil emissions vehicles. As a result of the authorities’ regulation, passenger transport in urban centers becomes more challenging through measures such as fewer parking spaces, environmental streets, toll roads and other. HAYK wants and offers environmentally friendly and smart transport to reduce pollution and car traffic, and through a simple system create an effective solution for cargo and delivery. The need for transport arises when one is to travel outside the busiest public communication routes or need to transport more than we can carry with us on public communication.
Entrepreneurs Nikolai Pyke and Geir Paulsen are the enthusiasts behind the concept, and they are supported by a well-composed team to be able to develop smart and socially beneficial solutions for car transport.
HAYK offers a service where users share environmentally friendly means of transport through a subscription with access to a pool of electric cars organized in housing cooperatives. A certain number of electric cars are available around in a city where you can book it and travel to the car. Through solar cells on the cars and at charging stations, the car in the future could be a separate charging station. The company is in dialogue with City Council politicians in Oslo who have expressed great enthusiasm for the initiative.
Get Started! has connected relevant investors and contributed with advice during the start-up phase. We have connected people to create a good team and we are a part of the company´s board.
The idea of HØR was conceived by Harald Næs, who himself was exposed to a hearing injury in 2012 and soon learned what challenges it entailed.
A slow and long-lasting treatment process, combined with Harald’s own experiences of stigmatization and disability, contributed to the loss of work.
Harald brought these experiences with him as he, along with his friend Robert Jager, decided to make good and safe audio experiences available to everyone. They set up the company Hear it AS in 2015, and then got help from the architectural and design office Snøhetta to develop brand names, web sites and store concepts for HØR. In April 2017, HØR received a planned share issue of NOK 5 million which enabled them to create both a shop and an online store.
Over one million Norwegians today have challenges with their hearing and even more people regularly experience noise or strain that can damage their hearing in the long run. It wants to do something about it.
HØR will gather the expertise and products that contribute to better hearing and safer audio experiences in one place. The offer will include hearing aids, headphones, speakers, hearing protectors, acoustic products and special products for tinnitus and ringing in the ears. The rapid technological advances in hearing have also led to a number of innovative and new products known as “Hearables”. In this category, HØR wants to be a leader and will among other things offer “in-ear” products that give the user the opportunity to strengthen and filter sound based on their own wishes and needs.
HØR will put the customer and the ear in focus through an innovative new chain with a brand-new offer for anyone who wants to take better care of their hearing. There is no similar offer that we have come across anywhere in either the United States or Europe. As part of this, they also create an alternative to the public channel when it comes to the acquisition of hearing aids. They take a holistic perspective on the whole ear, through prevention, helping to hear and enjoying good sound in a good and safe way. Now they have their first store at Byporten Shopping, as well as online store and targets for several new openings of stores around Norway in 2018.
Get Started! has been involved in HØR since the beginning, provided valuable contributions in developing their business model. We have also contributed to capital acquisition and localization of the project leader.
bbhugme was started by Hilde Sjo Tavares, Ann Kristin S Homdrum and Elisabeth Aas Jacobsen in 2013.
The three chiropractors own the chain Bekken & Barn, which since 2006 specializes in the treatment of pregnant women, pelvic complaints, infants and children.
The idea of bbhugme came after the pregnant and new-born mothers for treatment requested a home-based aid. Something that could relieve pain and improve sleep. When the chiropractors found that such a thing did not exist, they decided they had to make it themselves.
Helped by K8 Industridesign they made a prototype of the pillow, which consists of a long, malleable inner cushion and a washable cover which is attached with silicone rings.
Towards the end of 2013, investors were acquired in and a CEO was hired.
From 2014 and onwards, CEO Åsa Roth accelerated bbhugme and got their product distributed in most of Norway. The bbhugme Pregnancy Pillow were launched in chiropractic clinics, for midwives and in all the leading babyshops. The customers were very enthusiastic, and some pregnant women expressed that “the pillow saved my pregnancy”.
New investors have been acquired several times since 2014 and until today. One of five first time pregnant woman in Norway are buying the pillow. New products have been launched and the company is experiencing increasing sales in Sweden, Denmark and the United Kingdom. The customers are enthusiastic and bbhugme are ready to step into new markets.
Today, five people work in the company, and it is planned to increase this number in the near future. bbhugme have went form being a startup to become a growing venture with the goal of become a leading brand for pregnant women globally. The CEO baton have been handed over to Kristin Stormanger, leading the company on its way to become an international brand. The company is heading towards profits I 2019.
Get Started! has invested in bbhugme AS and Mads Haaland-Paulsen is a part of the board of the company.
Platform 12 (P12) develops an international and digital knowledge platform and development arena for music education.
P12 is a groundbreaking tool for work and further education for instrumental and vocal teachers as well as students. Being clearly structured and systematic, P12 facilitates collaboration between educators in a new and better way. It enables extensive sharing of both teaching materials and methodological experiences and preserves and systematize the teaching experience of educators. The platform also develops teaching methods and contributes to quality assurance. P12 allows for creative cross-links of knowledge in the span between quick professional overviews and in-depth opportunities. It is convenient and understandable, accessible to anyone, flexible and easy to use, impact and update.
P12 contains everything from concrete teaching repertoire such as notes, audio illustrations and video to methodical, educational and psychological basic knowledge.
The content is structured in instrument, level, age, repertoire, methods, planning, learning goals, relationship knowledge, creative processes, concert preparation and practice. The idea for a web-based educational tool has since 2005 been developed through a collaboration between Grete Helle Rasmussen, one of Norway’s foremost music educators and Leif Haglund, Swedish visual artist / graphic designer and pioneer in digital media. The necessity for a common educational platform was discovered during development work in Vietnam, Brazil and Norway.
P12 makes knowledge of instrumental teaching easily accessible on a website with departments with different languages. It started out in Norway in 2014/2015 and is planned to be developed for Sweden, Brazil, Vietnam and South Africa.
Get Started! has invested in Plattform 12 AS and Mads Haaland-Paulsen is a board member in the company. He is responsible for developing the company as an entrepreneurial company, including the company’s financial strategy and assessment of the company’s ongoing capital needs, applications and follow-up of public support schemes such as Skattefunn and Innovation Norway, foundations and organizations.
In 2009, K8 Industridesign started developing a solar cell lamp that in the course of a few years would become an international success.
The goal for the designers was to develop an environmentally friendly light source that meets the user’s need for light while also being able to charge a cellphone. The target group they saw as most important were all who live without electrical power in the developing countries of the world. 1.3 billion people lives without electricity and often have to use weak and health hazardous paraffin lamps for homework and everyday tasks. The result was the solar cell lamp SunBell, later followed by the smaller solar light SunTurtle.
In 2011, Marius Andresen contacted his friend Kristian Bye (then head of the digital agency APT) to seek advice on the international launch of the innovation. Kristian lit up the idea and same year, Marius and Kristian won the social entrepreneurship competition, COMMON PITCH, in Colorado, USA. Following this success, BRIGHT Products were established, with Kristian as CEO.
BRIGHT Products is a Norwegian company with the vision “A world that sees new opportunities”. This vision is deeply rooted in the company’s product development and their vision of the potential of people worldwide. BRIGHT has delivered over 210,000 SunBell to refugees under protection of the United Nations in a number of different countries. BRIGHT Products lamps are sold in a number of African countries, and in the outdoor market in Scandinavia, Germany, the USA and the UK.
GetStarted! has worked closely with BRIGHT since 2013, and Mads has, among other things, served as acting CFO and operative contributor in the following areas: Financial strategy and assessment of the company’s ongoing capital requirements, applications and follow-up of public support schemes such as Skattefunn and Innovation Norway, negotiations and follow-up of partners for payment guarantees and letters of credit, preparation of accounting figures and liquidity analyses, as well as presentation of this for the company’s board.
T/RAW Jewellery is a fashion brand that is based around the small things in everyday life one might not usually perceive as beautiful.
By recreating them in a precious metal, they get new life and thus an extended life cycle. The lifestyle magazine Kamille named the jewellery “an everyday hero”.
The T/RAW brand is owned and operated by Tine Haaland-Paulsen.
T/RAW designs and makes jewellery in silver. Over the past two years, it has been worked to build a collection under its own brand T/RAW jewellery. The name comes from when Tine started designing and simple jewellery with a rough and raw look. The jewellery she wanted herself, but she couldn’t find anywhere. Jewellery with a quality both in workmanship and craftsmanship. Starting out with producing all the jewellery herself, she now creates prototypes for small production batches.
T/RAW is built on the principle of reinforcing your own identity and expression regardless of specific trends.
T/RAW avoids being controlled by trends that come and go, but observes the fluctuations and changes in the environment, aiming towards a more sustainable level. As a designer, Tine is used to knowing future trends. That way, the jewellery is not dependent on pace, but are rather objects with designs that last. The jewellery is clear, with a pure expression that can be used both for every day and more special occasions.
Get Started! has worked with T/RAW to gather capital and to give advice on entrepreneurship and start-up. We have also used our network and connected T/RAW with people who have relevant expertise as possible partners. We are also a board member.
Other start-ups we have worked with:
- iMAL
- Impact Invest
- JodaCare
- KMC
- KREM Norge
- Massive Small Oslo
- Medeq Group
- Repairable
- Moblrn
- Momoya
- Petaloudia
- PharmaSkincare
- PIL – interiørarkitektur & Design
- Pilum Pharma
- Postkasse 3.0
- Radiosignal
- RedOcean
- Robin
- RoCo Invest
- Roo
- RunBag
- Ryggraden
- Sherpa Music
- SoMentor
- Studio 17
- Stiftelsen Breakthrough
- Talerlisten
- The Garage
- The Human Aspect
- The Next Billion
- The Northern Company
- TidBanken
- Tvibit
- Venntage
- World of KAMA
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