Fundraising

The fundraising knowledge base

What a Norwegian founder needs in order to raise from angels: getting the company ready, building the materials, running the process, and living with the terms afterwards.

New Startup Founders - Start here

Three articles that give you the basics of seeking startup investments before you dive into the details. 

Angel funding and your business model

What an angel is and what they expect in return, and the evidence a business model needs before you ask anyone for money.

Branded NorBAN Knowledge Base featured image for the Fundraising track, pillar 6 of 8: Business model and evidence. Navy header band reading 'NorBAN Knowledge Base' with the 'FUNDRAISING' track eyebrow, a circular icon medallion in the green track accent colour with the pillar code S6, the pillar title, and a thin green accent rule top and bottom.

Business models investors understand

A recognisable business model tells an investor what your economics should look like and what has to be proven. Naming yours precisely, and knowing the proof it demands, is worth more than a novel hybrid nobody can price.
Foundation7 min readLast reviewed 2 September, 2026
Branded NorBAN Knowledge Base featured image for the Fundraising track, pillar 1 of 8: Understanding angel funding. Navy header band reading 'NorBAN Knowledge Base' with the 'FUNDRAISING' track eyebrow, a circular icon medallion in the green track accent colour with the pillar code S1, the pillar title, and a thin green accent rule top and bottom.

What angel investors are, and what they expect in return

An angel invests personal money in your company in exchange for shares, and usually expects to bring more than the money. What you get for it, what it costs you in ownership and information, and the years it commits you both to.
Foundation8 min readLast reviewed 2 September, 2026

Investor readiness

The housekeeping, agreements and records that decide whether a round survives diligence.

Branded NorBAN Knowledge Base featured image for the Fundraising track, pillar 2 of 8: Investor readiness. Navy header band reading 'NorBAN Knowledge Base' with the 'FUNDRAISING' track eyebrow, a circular icon medallion in the green track accent colour with the pillar code S2, the pillar title, and a thin green accent rule top and bottom.

Are you investor ready? A self-assessment

Investors score startups against a fixed set of areas, and the areas are stable enough to score yourself against first. The result is a list of gaps and an order to close them in.
Foundation7 min readLast reviewed 2 September, 2026
Branded NorBAN Knowledge Base featured image for the Fundraising track, pillar 2 of 8: Investor readiness. Navy header band reading 'NorBAN Knowledge Base' with the 'FUNDRAISING' track eyebrow, a circular icon medallion in the green track accent colour with the pillar code S2, the pillar title, and a thin green accent rule top and bottom.

Company housekeeping before you raise

Most due diligence findings in a founder company are housekeeping: a share register that does not match reality, minutes never written, filings late, contracts never signed, promises never recorded. Each is cheap to fix now and expensive mid-raise, when every finding becomes a condition, a warranty or a cut in the price.
Practitioner14 min readLast reviewed 2 September, 2026 Norwegian law
Branded NorBAN Knowledge Base featured image for the Fundraising track, pillar 2 of 8: Investor readiness. Navy header band reading 'NorBAN Knowledge Base' with the 'FUNDRAISING' track eyebrow, a circular icon medallion in the green track accent colour with the pillar code S2, the pillar title, and a thin green accent rule top and bottom.

Founder agreements, vesting and the cap table you will be judged on

A cap table is read as the record of every ownership decision the founders have made. A departed co-founder with a third of the company, founders who never signed anything with each other, or a lead founder diluted too far will end a conversation before terms are discussed. What to settle now, and how to repair what is broken.
Practitioner12 min readLast reviewed 2 September, 2026 Norwegian law

The materials

The deck, the model, the one-pager and the data room, and what each one has to prove.

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The data room: complete contents checklist

Investors ask for the same categories of documents every time, in roughly the same order. Build the data room to that list before it arrives, and due diligence becomes a walkthrough of work already done.
Reference12 min readLast reviewed 2 September, 2026
Branded NorBAN Knowledge Base featured image for the Fundraising track, pillar 3 of 8: The materials. Navy header band reading 'NorBAN Knowledge Base' with the 'FUNDRAISING' track eyebrow, a circular icon medallion in the green track accent colour with the pillar code S3, the pillar title, and a thin green accent rule top and bottom.

The financial model investors expect

Investors open the model to see how you think, and they test it in predictable ways. A working model with visible assumptions and an ask that follows from the cash line survives that reading.
Practitioner10 min readLast reviewed 2 September, 2026
Branded NorBAN Knowledge Base featured image for the Fundraising track, pillar 3 of 8: The materials. Navy header band reading 'NorBAN Knowledge Base' with the 'FUNDRAISING' track eyebrow, a circular icon medallion in the green track accent colour with the pillar code S3, the pillar title, and a thin green accent rule top and bottom.

The pitch deck: what each slide has to answer

An investor reads a deck with a fixed set of questions in mind, and each slide exists to close one of them. The questions are stable across investors and knowable before the file is opened, so building the deck is a matter of collecting the evidence that closes each one.
Foundation7 min readLast reviewed 2 September, 2026

Valuation and terms, founder side

How a price is set, what the clauses do, and what your cap table looks like three rounds out.

Branded NorBAN Knowledge Base featured image for the Fundraising track, pillar 4 of 8: Valuation and terms, founder side. Navy header band reading 'NorBAN Knowledge Base' with the 'FUNDRAISING' track eyebrow, a circular icon medallion in the green track accent colour with the pillar code S4, the pillar title, and a thin green accent rule top and bottom.

How to think about valuation at pre-seed and seed

At pre-seed there is nothing to discount and nothing to compare, so the price is negotiated within norms both sides can check. An investor runs two tests on your number, the stage it sits at and the exit it implies. Know both, and know what a price your next round cannot clear will cost you.
Foundation8 min readLast reviewed 2 September, 2026
Branded NorBAN Knowledge Base featured image for the Fundraising track, pillar 4 of 8: Valuation and terms, founder side. Navy header band reading 'NorBAN Knowledge Base' with the 'FUNDRAISING' track eyebrow, a circular icon medallion in the green track accent colour with the pillar code S4, the pillar title, and a thin green accent rule top and bottom.

Pricing the round, or deferring it

A deferred-pricing instrument moves the valuation question to a later date and settles it in advance through a discount and a cap, sometimes on worse terms than naming a number would have produced. The arithmetic for deciding follows, in the two forms Norwegian practice uses.
Practitioner14 min readLast reviewed 2 September, 2026
Branded NorBAN Knowledge Base featured image for the Fundraising track, pillar 4 of 8: Valuation and terms, founder side. Navy header band reading 'NorBAN Knowledge Base' with the 'FUNDRAISING' track eyebrow, a circular icon medallion in the green track accent colour with the pillar code S4, the pillar title, and a thin green accent rule top and bottom.

The aksjonæravtale from the founder’s side

The shareholders’ agreement is the document you will live with longest, through every later round and up to the exit. Most of its clauses are standard because Norwegian company law protects nobody’s expectations by default. A few deserve a real negotiation, and a few should make you stop and take advice before signing.
Practitioner13 min readLast reviewed 2 September, 2026 Norwegian law

Running the raise, at home and abroad

Surviving diligence, closing under Norwegian company law, and what changes when the money comes from outside Norway.

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Closing in Norway

In a Norwegian AS a round closes through a fixed statutory sequence of resolution, subscription, payment, confirmation and registration. Until the capital increase is registered, the money is not raised and the shares do not exist, whatever the investment agreement says.
Reference8 min readLast reviewed 2 September, 2026 Norwegian law
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Raising from international investors as a Norwegian company

Foreign investors do not change which law governs your company. They change the documents, the expectations and the questions you answer twenty times. Most of that friction is predictable, and most of it can be prepared before the first call.
Practitioner13 min readLast reviewed 2 September, 2026 Norwegian law
Branded NorBAN Knowledge Base featured image for the Fundraising track, pillar 5 of 8: Running the raise. Navy header band reading 'NorBAN Knowledge Base' with the 'FUNDRAISING' track eyebrow, a circular icon medallion in the green track accent colour with the pillar code S5, the pillar title, and a thin green accent rule top and bottom.

Surviving due diligence

Due diligence checks that what you have told investors is true. The questions are standard and knowable in advance, and everything material surfaces eventually. The decision left to you is whether it surfaces from you early or from the process late.
Practitioner11 min readLast reviewed 2 September, 2026

Terms, and the other side of the table

Norwegian and English, side by side, in the glossary.

The other side of the table: angel investing.

Raising from angels

NorBAN introduces investor-ready Norwegian companies to its angel members. The route in is the same for everyone: a clear company, a clear ask, and materials that hold up.

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