Covid-19 crisis: extra funding for Norwegian businesses

The country’s Innovation Norway agency will be distributing NOK 4.7 billion in extra grants and loans to innovative projects.

These funding schemes will only be available to companies that create jobs in Norway. If you’re a company that is developing innovative products or services, you should keep reading.

Norway is open to new ideas from outside its borders, especially when it comes to the sustainable and ocean industries. It’s a relatively simple process to set up a Norwegian company.

We have helped many foreign entrepreneurs to set up a company in Norway and we can help with any questions you might have about this process. We can also help you to make contact with Innovation Norway to discuss funding.

You can also download our free guide to setting up a Norwegian company.

Helping to support valuable projects

The funding from Innovation Norway is targeted at startup companies, as well as growth businesses that are developing new products, services or processes. The intention is to ensure that the coronavirus pandemic does not put an end to these valuable projects.

Nina Broch Mathisen, Regional Director of Innovation Norway’s Vestland County office, says: “As a result of the crisis, there is a risk that important innovation projects will be cancelled or postponed.”

“Innovation Norway wants to ensure that companies with growth potential can survive, and emerge from the crisis even stronger.”

Innovation Norway’s new package includes several key measures for injecting more capital into the country’s startups and growth companies. These include:

• NOK 2 billion to innovation grants. These are grants that go towards development activities in small and medium-sized enterprises, which are assumed to have large market potential.
• NOK 500 million towards established grants. These are for entrepreneurs and start-up companies with innovative business ideas that have market and growth potential but reduced access to equity.
• NOK 1.6 billion increase in the loan limit for innovation loans. Innovation loans can be used to commercialise new solutions, strengthen working capital, and to promote internationalisation.
• NOK 300 million to interest fund support, which gives Innovation Norway the opportunity to grant interest-free periods for its customers.
• NOK 50 million to a scheme for private innovation environments. This is in order to secure the environments that have been build up over several years, including but not limited to incubators, coworking spaces and accelerators. 

In addition, it’s now possible for companies to apply for both innovation grants and innovation loans at the same time.

And for some of its innovation grants, the agency is also raising the percentage of a project’s total cost that it can cover, from 50% to 75%.

 “Even in times of crisis, we need to support businesses that are working with innovation and development,” explains Broch Mathisen.

“We hope that by putting these measures in place, we will help to support more value creation in Norway,” she adds.