Norway is home to over 120 fintech companies with the vast majority of solutions available right now focusing on mobile payments and online banking, though other segments such as data and analytics, insurtech, data and analytics, and wealthtech, are also represented, data from TheFactor, a fintech and proptech incubator and accelerator, show.
Several Norwegian fintechs have grown to notable size, attracting the interest of foreign investors and expanding overseas.
To get a sense of Norway’s biggest, most successful fintech companies, we’ve compiled a list of six Norwegian fintechs that have recorded strong growth, made notable strides this past year, and which deserve to be followed very closely.
For this list, we’ve selected venture capital-backed, independent and private Norwegian fintech companies and excluded publicly traded fintechs such as Zwipe, those that got bought out like Signicat, and initiatives launched or backed by incumbents such as Vipps, a popular mobile payment app owned by a consortium of banks.
Aprila Bank
Founded in 2017, Aprila Bank is a provider of digital banking services intended to renew traditional small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) banking.
At Aprila Bank, customer onboarding takes seconds, financial offers for invoices are automatically generated when the invoice is created, and the platform uses live accounting data to price risk and predicts outcomes using machine learning (ML).
Aprila Bank is connected to SMEs through partnership agreements with leading cloud-based ERP and accounting system providers to offer SME financing. As of the end of 2019, it had over 800 SME customers.
Aprila Bank is one of the most well-funded fintech in Norway at more than EUR 18 million, according to Dealroom.
Exabel
Founded in 2016, Exabel is an analytics platform for investment professionals to benefit from alternative data and modern data science tools in their investment process.
Exabel’s software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform enables discretionary managers to complement their fundamental strategies with more data-driven techniques. The platform features solutions for hypothesis analysis, predictive modeling, and backtesting for investment assistance. It offers data evaluation, analysis, data reporting, and insights for portfolio management.
In 2020, Exabel grew its customer base by 5x, and built and launched its first commercial partnerships. The startup has raised more than US$21 million in funding, the latest round being in March 2021.
Settle Group
Founded in 2010, Settle Group is an European mobile payment leader providing products and services for the retail and corporate markets.
The company’s platform handles all types of use cases and funding sources, ranging from cards, prepaid to direct to account access, making it easier for people and businesses to pay and get paid.
With the Settle app, people can send, receive and manage money instantly from their phone. With Settle for Business, a suite of self-service payment and commerce tools, and the Settle API, any business can accept digital payments, in any situation, without relying on hardware.
Settle is available in 22 markets in the European Economic Area (EAA) and is delivered on a collaborative partnering model through trusted local brands. Last year, the startup raised funding in two deals and continued expanding in EU.
Neonomics
Neonomics, formerly Bankbridge, provides an open banking platform that, which, among other things, aggregates PSD2/open banking APIs from banks.
The platform offers access to identity data, balance, transaction history and fund coverage, payment initiation, payment details query and payment status, enabling banks to easily and securely deploy financial innovations.
Neonomics is connected to more than 2,000 banks across Europe, and has close to 100% live fully operational coverage across the Nordics. Over the past year, it has inked partnerships with the likes of Experian, Bankify and Lendonomy. The startup has raised more than US$2 million in funding so far, according to PitchBook.
ZTL Payment Solution
Founded in 2018, ZTL Payment Solution has developed a business-to-business (B2B) payment platform as an alternative to the banks’ transactional banking services, corporate payments and remittances. The solution can be integrated into enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, banks and other fintech’s via an API providing a customized payment solution.
In April 2020, the company received a license from the Financial Supervisory Authority from Norway, and was granted PSD2 licenses for payment initiation and account information. ZLT Payment Solution also landed three seed funding rounds last year, totaling around EUR 5 million, according to Crunchbase.
Tjommi
Founded in 2018, Tjommi is an app that collects user’s receipts and automatically tracks and price-matches the products.
The user can manually scan and upload their receipts or have it automatically uploaded from their email. The app registers the products in their database, and refunds are then given to the user if the price drops. Everything is done through automated communication with the store, and Tjommi takes a commission fee of 25% of the difference they are able to save the user.
Presently, Tjommi has over 30,000 downloads in Norway. The startup was recently named one of 24 emerging Nordic fintechs to watch out for by Copenhagen Fintech and Innovation Lab Asia.
