Nice visit to the booth: CEO Thomas Hårklau talks about the reception at the Bergen investor conference recently, to senior adviser Ingvild Kjørrefjord and innovation advisor Torunn Stangervåg, both from Innovation Norway. Photo: Jørn Lekve / Kitemill

På samlingen i Bergen under navnet ”8.Game Changers – Norway investor summit 2019”, dagene 23. og 24. oktober, var en lang rekke store investorer påmeldt for å møte de mange teknologiselskapene som presentere seg og sine produkter.

At the gathering in Bergen called “8th Game Changes – Norway investor summit 2019”, 23rd and 24th of October, was many large investors signed up to meet 60 technology startups who presented their business plans and investment cases.

Among the investor communities and state-owned policy instruments with large delegations were BKK Spring, Horizons Ventures, Argentum, DNB, Innovation Norway, NCE Finance Innovation, Bergen Municipality and Oslo Business Region, just to name a few.

Turned out positively

Kitemill had a booth that attracted attention and a number of investor communities sought it out. At AWEC 2019 in Glasgow on October 15 and 16, there was similarly great interest in Kitemill.

"I’ve been told we stood out positively," says Kitemill's general manager, Thomas Hårklau. It was a good mix of other industry players, investors, customers and government representatives present at the Glasgow International Conference.

Kitemill highlighted by the IEA

During one of the panel debates in Scotland, Cedric Phillibert from the International Energy Council (IEA) reverted to Kitemill. He said, among other things, that Kitemill's thoughts on commercial development of the industry were very relevant. The participants also appreciated Kitemill's stand, the company's three exhibitions and, not least, the lectures the company was behind. At the Glasgow conference, Thomas Hårklau gave a talk on Kitemill's history, how the company works today, and how he envisions the future. The others from Kitemill who attended the conference were the company's head of the control system discipline, Espen Oland. He gave both lectures and was responsible for a poster presentation. Oland has also served on the program committee for this year's conference. Technical Manager Lode Carnel gave a lecture about Kitemill technology development, while control system engineer Tallak Tveide had a popular poster presentation.

Visit of Innovation Norway

At the investor gathering at Bergen Media Center, Kitemill's stand was also visited by Innovation Norway among others. Senior adviser Ingvild Kjørrefjord and innovation advisor Torunn Stangervåg have both followed Kitemill for a long time.

- In 2015, we started a targeted effort to raise Kitemill to a higher level, where the goal was to gain international support. We have now achieved this after four years of hard work, Ingvild Kjørrefjord said when Kitemill received an EU grant of NOK 24 million earlier this fall, as the first company in Hordaland.