Introducing the 9 companies selected for SL Accelerator #12
A few weeks ago, we kicked off the 12th edition of the Startuplab Accelerator. Having all the 9 selected companies presenting on stage, for an audience of peers, the investors in our Founders Fund IV, our Executives in Residence, and the Startuplab team.
We are excited to announce the 9 very promising startups and teams that we will be working closely with for 12 weeks, culminating in Demo Day on June 16th. (want an invitation to the Demo Day? Please send us an email)
We received a total of 140 applications from all over Norway, in industries ranging from eCommerce, retail, and marketing, to Medtech, media, and renewables. With software and hardware companies, targeting both consumers and businesses. In other words, just the kind of mix Startuplab loves to work with.
We are proud to introduce each company below:
The popularity of video content is on the rise. Simpler and simpler methods for recording high-quality video create a vast supply of content. In turn, it creates increased pressure for broadcasters and individual producers to edit their content in a fast and relevant way for the viewer, tailored to several formats, like TV, social media, and other destinations online.
Started by a group of individuals with experience from building TV2 Sumo and Vimond, CuttingRoom is providing a multi-tenant video-editing tool in the cloud. To meet the modern demand for collaboration in post-production, the software offers an easy-to-use interface where editors can collaborate on uploading clips, editing, and publishing regardless of location and whether the sources are file-based or live streams.
Cutting Room hides complexity, and removes the need for creatives to be skilled technicians. They can spend less time and cost to create beautifully edited videos that can both reach their audience faster, and make their stories more engaging.
Contact: Helge Høibraaten, helge@cuttingroom.com
Bricks are among the most widely used building materials globally. However, it is also one of the worst contributors to CO2-emissions, nature reduction and waste in the construction industry.
HØINE offers a circular platform helping property developers transform brick waste into façade, interior and landscape products. Focusing on product innovation, design and documentation, the company aims to maximize the value of brick waste. Compared to new, reclaimed bricks reduces the Co2-footprint by 99% and comes with an unmatched patina.
HØINE is already established as the market leader, realizing Norway's first commercial building with a reclaimed brick facade and piloting the world's first upcycled clay shingle façade.
Contact: Jorunn Tyssø, jorunn@hoine.no
As much as 10% of the materials delivered to building projects go unused (because of surplus from incorrect ordering, fear of construction halt, defects, and returns). Disposal of material waste is also a contributor to the vast CO2 emissions in the construction industry. Simultaneously, the supply chain constraints have made prices for commodities soar, which puts pressure on the industry to improve its material management.
Sirken has invented a clever solution where they place containers at the construction site where the surplus problem occurs, which enables project managers to store surplus materials and components. The material products are registered digitally and listed for sale through Sirken’s own marketplace, or third-party marketplaces like Finn.no. The container then works like an automated pick-up point for the buyer.
The business model is a win-win, as the constructors save cost from waste disposal while salvaging value from a cut of the material sale, and in the process, improve the sustainability certifications for their building projects. At the same time, individuals and small businesses get access to cheaper materials for their improvement projects.
Contact: Ingvar Aune, ingvar@sirken.no
Assessment methods for sustainable buildings, such as BREEAM, encourage both green roofs and local production of renewable energy. However, solar installations with traditional flat panels suppress the effect of green roofs and increase the need for maintenance.
Over Easy Solar is tackling this problem by offering an innovative patent-pending solution for vertically mounted bifacial solar panels on buildings. The solar units are installed in a tenth of the time it takes for conventional panels, and the energy production over two peaks can be optimized for any type of building. In addition, vertical panels offer better performance in wind and snow, and is the best option to offer solar power and reap the benefits of a green roof.
Over Easy Solar has received financial support from the Research Council of Norway for a development project with IFE and Fraunhofer ISE, and has started working with pilot customers ASKO and Oslo Kommune.
Contact: Trygve Mongstad, trygve@overeasy.no
With all the written content posted on the internet every day, it is increasingly important for newspapers, magazines, and businesses to produce writing that resonates with their target audience.
Upfeed is offering a writing assistant that helps writers improve their writing by providing real-time advice on sentiment and structure. Moreover, it helps freelancers, media houses, communication bureaus, public servants, and others to lift their content credibility, target audience precision, and message clarity using Upfeed’s AI-driven text analytics tool. Writing engaging content, consistently, made easy.
Upfeed's mission is to help create engaging, high-quality content, consistently, and its product is already used by notable media companies.
Disclosure: Not Startuplab investment
Contact: Joakim William Hauge, jh@upfeed.no
About a quarter of the global population play video games. Due to this popularity, close to ten thousand games are released each year across all platforms. Many games aim to promote the positive development of skills, like communication, teamwork, and critical decision-making.
Stemming from an experienced gaming community at NTNU and Work-Work, Riddlebit develops the game Setback.
Setback is an innovative multiplayer first-person shooter where you don’t kill your opponents, instead, you rewind them back in time. There’s also a high focus on character mobility, and the various game modes (Race, Safe Zone and Capture the Flag) are designed to combine rapid decision making with time as a strategic element in gameplay.
Contact: Lars Olav Muri, lars@riddlebit.net
Insert:Logic
Manual and inefficient operation of equipment and unexpected downtime represents high costs for industrial companies.
Insert:Logic develops and sells industrial software with pre-configured business logic applications to monitor, analyze, and streamline end-to-end processes in industrial machinery. The software enables industrial companies to shift their operations from human-centric to data and AI-centric organizations.
With its first customers, Insert:Logic has already proven that it can reduce costs of operations significantly.
Contact: Svenn Erik Edal, see@insertlogic.io
Due to the power of association among consumers, brands allocate an increasing amount of their advertising budgets towards sports teams and athletes.
To measure the value of a sponsorship, sponsors rely on manual measurements and expensive consulting services. At the same time, athletes, clubs, and federations are left with few resources to decide what their commercial value is, and often forfeit revenue (and funding for their sport) by underselling their advertising space.
To solve this problem, Spect8 has developed the software tool Foqus. Foqus is an easy-to-use machine learning tool created for sports teams and individual athletes to determine their commercial value for sponsorships, and for brands to manage and measure multiple sponsor agreements. To capture the shift in viewing habits, the software analyzes brand exposure across several sources, like social media, streaming, as well as linear TV. The visualizations and insights provide sponsors with an opportunity to make adjustments (i.e. a logo placement) to improve return on investment.
Spect8 is currently working with Norsk Toppfotball and several brands and is off to a good start to reach its goal of creating a new industry standard for how sponsorship value is created, measured, and driven.
Contact: Glenn Myklebust, glenn@spect8.no
Esports is currently the fastest-growing spectator sport in the world. With it, there is an increasing number of professional teams competing in increasingly prestigious tournaments (like Dota 2, CS:GO, Fortnite, and League of Legends). Just like in other sports, young adults and hobbyist players want to improve their skills by watching the pros on Twitch and mimicking their gameplay.
Osirion is offering a software solution that analyzes gameplay and decision-making for established competitive games. The output provides players at any level, professional teams, and coaches with the performance analytics needed to engage in a structured approach to improve their gameplay strategies. In addition, the software gives feedback on screen time and eye strain that will notify players when they can benefit from pauses to promote recovery, mental health, and wellbeing.
Contact: Benedicte Stiberg, benedicte@osirion.gg
We want to thank every single applicant to the 12th Accelerator Program. It is great to see so many excellent applications and meet the inspiring and ambitious individuals behind them. We truly appreciate it!
If you are interested in either the accelerator program or would like an introduction to any of the companies - please get in touch.