Our mission is to be a strong political voice on behalf of ambitious startups, scaleups and founders.
Our goals are decided by our members.
How do we make Norway a leading startup nation?
Norway is a country of engineers, with enormous resources tied up in the Oil and Gas industry, and all that comes with it. However, in 2025 the leading business around the world are not industrial companies, but big tech. And those companies are born from strong startup ecosystems.
The European Commission has understood this, and launched the EU Startup and Scaleup Strategy earlier this year. They are now joining forces with private investors to set up a multi-billion Scaleup Europe Fund. Their slogan is that “the best of Europe choose Europe”, a fitting one seeing as 30% of European unicorns relocated outside Europe, while only 8% of the world’s scale-ups, actually are in Europe.
Ursula and the EU read the Draghi report, saying that innovative competitiveness needs to be our focus, and woke up. When is Norway going to do the same?
We want to
Introduce a more ambitious option scheme
Change the exit tax to keep international talent
Ensure that fortune taxes do not affect startups
Incentivice investment in high risk capital
Turn Norway into a magnet for international talent
Ensure parts of Norway’s NOK800 billion budget is spent on local, innovative solutions
“Europe has the ideas and the talent to build the most innovative companies in the world. But as they scale up we need to ensure they have the means to grow, attract investment and thrive right here at home. High quality jobs and Europe’s overall competitiveness depends on it. The Scaleup Europe Fund is an essential part of our work to make sure the best of Europe can choose Europe.”
Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission
(28 October 2025)