Sub-goal 2: More companies with growth potential

The work on companies with growth potential also encompasses the green transition. 75 per cent of the funding from Innovation Norway in 2022 was allocated to companies with growth potential, more than three years old. They received grants and loans totalling NOK 4.4 billion. They also received advice, expert, networking, and promotion services.

We contribute to increased exports

Innovation Norway prioritises those areas and companies that we believe have the best basis for succeeding internationally. We can see the impact of this in our international offices in that while we had fewer deliveries, user payments were higher than in 2021.

In 2022, the government launched the ‘All of Norway Exports’ export reform with the goal of increasing exports other than oil and gas by 50 per cent by the end of 2030. This means that business and their partners in working life are proposing larger, strategic export initiatives to the Norwegian Export Council, the government is approving them, and Innovation Norway is implementing them – in close cooperation with the rest of the business support system and foreign service missions. We have boosted our strategic export initiatives, so-called High Potential Opportunities, and at the end of the year there were nine initiatives, mainly targeting the green transition.

Invest in Norway

The Invest in Norway function is designed to facilitate international investments in Norway and position Norway as an attractive country for investors and talented people.

We worked systematically at a Nordic level in 2022 to build up cooperation around the battery industry. Together with Business Sweden and Business Finland, we have established a joint Nordic initiative, the Nordic Battery Collaboration.

The Nordic countries complement each other well in the battery value chain, and we can offer much of the same to those who want to establish themselves in the region. When we stand together, we have greater weight and more visibility than we would have had we stood alone. The Nordic cooperation also helps to build alliances and partnerships within the Nordic region.

Helping companies achieve international growth

Our goal is to work more comprehensively with the right companies over time, reduce risk, and ensure faster international growth. Global Gateways is one of our services for such companies. Advisers at the offices in Norway help the companies develop a growth plan for international initiatives and tailor services, while the international offices are key in positioning the companies in their markets.

Surveys show that companies that receive both financial services and expert services have a better basis for succeeding. 73 per cent of the companies taking part in the programme have received funding from Innovation Norway.

In 2022, we established a growth and export action team at all of our regional offices. These are tasked with identifying, and working closely with, companies that are well-qualified to succeed with growth and exports. We also expanded the digital self-service centre of excellence, which provides access to market insights, analyses, and expertise from the entire Norwegian business support system.

Our surveys in 2022 show that, compared with comparable companies that did not take advantage of these services, companies that received international marketing advice from Innovation Norway’s international offices saw 9.2 percentage points higher turnover growth, 5.5 percentage points higher value creation growth, and 3.4 percentage points higher productivity growth.

EU programmes are opening new doors

EU programmes provide growth funding and expertise to companies and open doors to international markets. Norwegian companies received NOK 125 million in grants and NOK 225 million in equity from the EIC Accelerator in 2022. Many of them were assisted by our EU advisers.

Record high proportion for green transition

In 2022, was 68 per cent of our financial resources were spent on projects with the potential to have positive environmental impacts. This is historically high. Of the innovation grants, measured in NOK, 84 per cent were marked as having a positive environmental impact. Together with Enova, the Research Council of Norway, Export Finance Norway, Siva, and DOGA, we have prepared a proposal for how the business support system can assess whether a project can be classified as green and how we can report on our contributions to green projects.

The proposal involves using the EU’s six environmental objectives. Projects will thus be classified as green if they have a potential positive impact on climate change mitigation, climate change adaptation, sustainable use and protection of water and marine resources, transition to a circular economy, pollution prevention and control, or the protection and restoration of biodiversity and ecosystems.