History of NorBAN
NorBAN is the only non-profit member-based interest organization in Norway dedicated to Business Angel investors in early-stage startups, representing a dozen regional and sector specific angel groups totaling hundreds angel investors, as well as more than a hundred active members and associated investors.
The current NorBAN organization was established in 2023 by a merger between NorBAN (founded 2010) and Business Angels Norway (founded 2016). A full timeline can be found below.
Ecosystem background
The establishment of business angel networks in Norway came out of a decades long process of local initiatives and an increasing focus on entrepreneurship as a driver of economic growth and opportunity for both individuals and the nation as a whole, starting in the mid-1990s. In 1995 the government initiated a program for commercialization of university research called FORNY, which eventually lead to the establishment of Technology Transfer Offices at the major universities in 2003 and 2004. In addition we saw the creation of a national seed capital fund in 1997 and the establishment of the Forskningsparken incubator in 1999 by SIVA. All of this contributed strongly to strengthening the Norwegian startup ecosystem.
These activities were also joined by a range private initiatives inspired by the dotcom bubble in Silicon Valley, such as the 1999 establishment of the First Tuesday Oslo networking arena by Truls Berg and the Gründerskolen entrepreneurial study program by Lars Monrad-Krohn. These were followed by the 2001 establishment of the Venture Cup business plan competition, the regional investor network Connect Vest in Stavanger, and the VentureLab investment network in Oslo. In 2002 we also saw the founding of Seed Forum which has grown into a global innovation network, as well as the student organization Start Norway that also took over the Venture Cup competition that is still held every year.
This startup ecosystem boom continued with increasing activity throughout the 2000s, with more than a handful of active regional business angel networks by 2008, including Partus (in Kristiansand), Trøndelag Investorforum, SND Rogaland (RoBAN), and in Oslo several more including BioBAN, ICT BAN and VentureLab NorBAN, but with no national coordination between them. While most of these networks are no longer active they did have a lasting impact on the ecosystem, like for instance the VentureLab Investment Forum event at Forskningsparken that grew into what is now DnB NXT during Oslo Innovation Week.
Timeline of major Activities and events 2010-2023
2010: NorBAN
2002-2005: NorBAN name established
NorBAN was initially used as the name for an angel network initiative ran by Thomas Due, founder of VentureLab at Forskningsparken.
3rd of March 2010: OFFICIAL FOUNDING Norwegian Business Angel Network – NorBAN
This first national angel network in Norway was founded by Truls Petter Berg along with Cato Musæus, Camilla H. Andersson, Rasmus Falch, Thomas Falch, and Lars Monrad-Krohn.
The organization was focused on highly skilled and active individual investors in early stage businesses, and was announced on the 10th of May at a First Tuesday Oslo event.
The organization was a member of the European angel network EBAN from its inception.
2011: Organized first investor conference and supported establishment of InnoBørs
NorBAN organized its first Norwegian Investor conference in collaboration with Seed Forum and Movation, also collaborating with the latter in launching InnoBørs as a marketplace to connect investors and startups.
2012: Founding member of the National Innovation Council
NorBAN alongside other ecosystem actors was one of the founding members of the National Innovation Council – a cross-sector initiative to promote innovation and entrepreneurship and break through political barriers to collaboration.
2013: Business Angel Conference
NorBAN organized The Business Angel Conference in Norway in partnership with First Tuesday, Venturelab, Investinor and Movation, gathering more than 250 attendees in a significant event for the Norwegian ecosystem.
2014-2016: Tax incentives for investments
Both NorBAN and the nacent BAN Norway were active advocates for improving tax conditions for early stage investments. Alongside other ecosystem organizations they were instrumental in the political work to establish a tax incentive for startup investments in Norway, succeeding with the implementation by Parliament of such a tax deduction starting from the 1st of July 2017.
2017: Partnership with InnoMag and the creation of InvestorGuide
InvestorGuide was an independent resource and common library of best practices for early-stage investors. It was launched as part of the joint efforts in a partnership between NorBAN and InnoMag – a Norwegian news site for innovation and entrepreneurship launched in 2016.
2019 — Partner in Startup World Cup
NorBAN partnered with Silicon Vikings and Open Innovation Lab of Norway on hosting the Norwegian Startup World Cup final, giving six selected startups access to investors and an international competition platform, which was won by Tag Sensors from Mo i Rana.
2021: New website and profile
NorBAN renewed its website and established a tiered membership model after COVID-19, but struggled with limited activity for a period.
2016: Business Angels Norway
2014: Preparations for a new umbrella BAN
Through the work of Connect Norway and various political initiatives, it becomes clear that a national umbrella for regional BANs would be useful for coordination of networks and to facilitate an increase in capital available to startups through the use of public funds.
2015: Founding member of Nordic BAN
Nordic BAN was established as a supra-national entity in Nov 2015 through a project by Nordic Innovation managed by CONNECT Norway.
The yet to be founded BAN Norway was involved from the beginning through Connect, and later became a key contributor behind establishing the Nordic Angel Program starting in 2018.
18th of April 2016: OFFICIAL FOUNDING
Business Angel Network Norway
The BAN Norway national umbrella organization for local business angel networks was founded on the initiative of Jørn Lein-Mathisen along with Sten Magne Hansen, Per Arnold Dyrkoren, and Håvard Lillebo. The original partners under the BAN umbrella was Oslo International Angels, BAN Tromsø, BAN Ofoten, and BAN Helgeland.
2016 June: Organizer of Norwegian Angel Week
BAN Norway organized the multi-location Norwegian Angel Week event across Oslo, Tromsø, and Narvik connecting more than 60 angels with potential investment opportunties.
2018-2019: Nordic Angel Program
BAN Norway was a partner and regional organizer of the Nordic Angel Program, funded by EU Horizon 2020. BAN Norway was honored as the most successful operating partner among the nations taking part by recruiting and training the highest number of new angel investors of any participating country. The programme included 90 angels from eight countries and resulted in €575,000 invested in four startups, as well as a range of secondary investments.
Another result of was the development of the Startup Includer tool, which became Dealum.
2020: Establishment of BAN Arctic and the Oslo International Angels program
BAN Norway was a key participant in the BAN Arctic project run by KUPA with funding from NORA, establishing a cross-border business angel network for the Northern Scandinavian region. At the same time it also developed and ran the Oslo International Angels-program with a series of training sessions for angels.
2021: Reorganization and bank partnerships
BAN Norway changed name to Business Angels Norway (BAN), adding Åsmund Johan Mandal and Svein-Magnus Sørensen to the board.
At the same time BAN also developed and ran the Danske Bank Angel Academy – training in startup-investments for the banks wealth-management customers.
2022: Nordic Angel Forum
Developed and delivered the Nordic Angel Forum – a cross-border investment event joining startups from Innovatum Science park in Trollhättan and Blender Collective in Fredrikstad with investors from two countries.
2022: Angel Network Colombia
BAN was a founding partner and supporter for the establishment of Angel Network Colombia, a regional organization to strengthen the startup ecosystem across Latin America.
2023-2025: North-Atlantic Business Angel Network
BAN participated in the project North Atlantic Business Angel Network (NABAN) in collaboration with KUPA and funded by NORA, resulting in the establishment of three new north-Atlantic business angel networks on Iceland, the Faroe Islands and Greenland.
2023: Merger between NorBAN and Business Angels Norway
On the 3rd of March 2023 the organizations BAN and NorBAN officially merged their members, purposes and operations with Svein-Magnus Sørensen as the new Chairman. The goal of the merger was to have a stronger joint organization that could better represent the Norwegian angel investment ecosystem in its entirety and be able to provide more valuable services and functions for both members and the ecosystem as a whole.
After a period of integration and collaboration to establish the structure for the new organization the official re-launch as a member organization for individual angels was held on the 24th of October. Along with the re-launch of the merged organization the new “Last Tuesday: Angel Mixer” monthly meetup for business angels was established, to be followed by a regularly held Startup Spotlight pitch-event series along with other member benefits.
Member activities
2023 – ongoing: Monthly Angel Mixers
Monthly series of members’ meeting with talks and networking.
2023 – ongoing: Community partnerships
NorBAN supports Nordic ecosystem events through community partnerships with conferences such as TechBBQ (Copenhagen), GoWest (Gothenburg), TechArena (Stockholm), TONIK (Torshavn) and Oslo Innovation Week.
2024 – ongoing: NorBAN Startup Spotlight
Quarterly series of member events with startup pitching and showcases from various partners.
2025 – ongoing: Become an Angel Investor
NorBANs standing introductory course for aspiring angels, running twice a year.
2025: North-Atlantic Angel Investor Summit
Invitation-only summit on the state of angel investing across the North Atlantic ecosystems organized during Oslo Innovation Week. Hosted by NorBAN in collaboration with SweBAN, FarBAN, IceBAN, and Nordic Ignite.
2025 – 2026: Group trip to TONIK
Investor group trip to the TONIK conference in Tórshavn to build ties with FarBAN, the Faroese angel network established in 2023 with NorBAN support, opening cross-border deal flow and networking across the North Atlantic.
2026 Event partner of AI+ Conference Halden and Snartup Fest Oslo
In 2026, NorBAN partnered with Smart Innovation Norway to deliver matchmaking for the the AI+ conference in Halden, and was also an event partner of Snartup Fest. At both events NorBANs role was connecting startups with business angels through pitching, investor matchmaking and networking.
2026: Launch of Expert Initiatives
Member-led self-organised groups running workshops and joint startup evaluation.
See the current active initiatives here!
2026: International Entrepreneurial Exchange Summit
Oslo Innovation Week event on cross-border founder mobility and international competency exchanges. Hosted by NorBAN with Barentssekretariatet, Gründergarasjen and the Norwegian School of Entrepreneurship at UiO.
International projects
2023 – ongoing: TONIK Pitch Competition
Annual startup pitch competition at the TONIK conference in the Faroe Islands, hosted by NorBAN’s Secretary General Rita Anson.
2024-2025: Alliance on Interregional Innovation Investments
NorBAN was selected as a delivery partner and competency training provider to the EU-backed ALLON_I3 project, an initiative funded under the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) Interregional Innovation Investments Instrument. The project aimed to strengthen cross-border value chains and build ecosystem capacity across developing and transitioning European regions. NorBAN delivered specialized investor readiness and angel network training to support innovation stakeholders across regional hubs in Gabrovo (Bulgaria), Alentejo (Portugal), Sicily (Italy), Nicosia (Cyprus), and Attica (Greece).
2025-2028: Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs
In 2025 NorBAN became the only Norwegian Intermediary Organisation (local contact point) for the European Commission’s “Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs” program. Operating within the SeedBridge and SeedRoots consortiums led by AKEP (Academy for Entrepreneurship, Greece), NorBAN facilitates and manages EU-funded cross-border exchanges. The initiative matches aspiring European entrepreneurs with experienced host business owners to drive knowledge transfer, foster business network expansion, and strengthen the broader international startup ecosystem.
2025-2027: EBAN Gender Expert Group
Advisory body working on structural barriers facing women in angel investing chaired by Rita Anson, NorBAN’s Secretary General.
2026: DAEN – Defence Angels European Network
Christian Wig who leads NorBAN’s Defence & Security experts initiative is a founding member of this pan-European collaboration between EBAN and BAE.
2026: WAYKUP Forum, Murcia
Norwegian partner for the sixth edition of the investor and startup forum organised by INFO, the Region of Murcia’s development agency.
2026-2029: Alliances for Innovation – STEM Skills Foundries
NorBAN is a consortium partner in the EU-funded “Alliances for STEM Skills Foundries” project, a strategic initiative designed to embed entrepreneurship and innovation directly into STEM education frameworks. The project bridges the gap between educational institutions and the labor market, focusing on developing the critical green and digital skills required for Europe’s socio-economic transition. Through transnational partnerships across EU Member States, NorBAN collaborates with higher education institutes, vocational education providers, and enterprise stakeholders to facilitate student access to specialized co-creation spaces and cross-sectoral curriculums.