3.9 Start-up funding for young entrepreneurs
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Access to information
Public information about funding opportunities, programmes and service providers and professional guidance is predominantly offered through
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Innovation Norway [Innovasjon Norge], a state-owned Norwegian special law company that works specifically to help entrepreneurs, growth companies and business environments to succeed in future-oriented business activities. Innovation Norway provides support to start-ups, advice on intellectual property rights and a mentoring service. Innovation Norway also offers various courses for start ups and new businesses.
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Altinn, an online portal for businesses, private individuals and public agencies. The portal has a lot of useful information for those who wish to establish and run businesses in Norway, sThese pages also contains a list of various business support schemes.
Innovation Norway has also established Emax, an annual meeting place for young people between 18 and 25 who want to invest in entrepreneurship, build networks and learn what it takes to start their own business. As part of Emax, young entrepreneurs compete as a team and individually in the EmaxChallenge, an idea competition linked to the UN's sustainability goals. Attendance at Emax is competitive and involves and application process.
Access to capital
- Innovation Norway offers grants for the development of innovative, market-oriented business ideas. These include grants for market clarification and grants for commercialization. The company also offers innovation loans and start-up loans. These schemes do not target young people exclusively. However, to stimulate increased recruitment in agriculture, Innovation Norway has a separate scheme for young farmers who want to make smaller investments to maintain and develop operations.
- Innovasjon Norway also administers a grant scheme to student entrepreneurship projects at Norwegian universities and colleges. Grants are provided to projects aimed at students with ambitions to start their own business. Projects do not have to target students who study entrepreneurship per se, but can be directed at activities and measures for students who are studying in subject areas with great potential for innovation, such as health, ICT, energy and sustainability.
- The Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV) has a support scheme that allows for people who are already receiving unemployment benefits to continue receiving benefits while establishing their own business. To be considered for the scheme applicants must meet certain requirements, including providing a professional assessment of the business plan by a body that NAV has approved.