The importance of investor experience
When reading about the EV charging company Easee in Norwegian local media in 2023, it was hard to see how Norway's fastest-growing startup at the time could fail.
The company had grown to 500 employees in four years and, in 2022, hit €180m in revenue and unicorn status. However, one year later, it was brought to the brink of bankruptcy due to a ban on its best-selling charger by the Swedish National Electrical Safety Board (ESV) following issues with the safety documentation for the chargers.
Founder and CEO, Jonas Helmikstøl, took the hit, and while dealing with growing mental health struggles, he left the company in the autumn of 2023.
Now, one year later, he’s just raised €1.7m in pre-seed funding for his new energy startup, Starflow, and is determined not to repeat the same mistakes he made at Easee.
“At times I felt unstoppable. I really want to show people, especially now, that I can do it again. And I will do it again and again and again,” Helmikstøl tells me.
Being a first-time founder, it wasn’t an easy ride growing Easee as quickly as he did. Looking back, he says: “When you grow as fast as we did, there are so many rules and regulations to follow — I was constantly trying to put out fires.”
Lack of shareholder support
Although Helmikstøl took most of the blame for the issues and was fine doing so, he looks back at Easee's stakeholders — investors, advisors and employees — and thinks they could have handled the situation differently.
“I think some people thought I didn't take it seriously enough, but someone had to stay positive to see us through. But with all the grownups around me, I wish some would have seen that I was struggling and needed help and support — not more pressure,” he says.
“I get it, [investors] have people behind them that they are investing money for. And Easee was such an adventurous thing — then things turned overnight.
“Having people that can deal with that pressure and not add more pressure to you because they are looking bad, this is what we are looking for now at Starflow,” he adds.
Norway isn’t a mature startup nation and hasn’t had many huge success stories for founders to get inspired by. The same goes for most investors, according to Skyfall founding partner Jon Kåre Stene, who has invested in Starflow.
“As with Jonas, from the investor side [at Easee], they were also doing this for the first time. The immaturity of investors in Norway who haven’t experienced that kind of rapid growth is a challenge,” he says. “Even today, Norway lacks investors going from Series A and above, who have been part of that journey and truly believe in the ability to build global super-companies — we don't actually have those in Norway.”
A Strong Talent Pool for Energy
However, Norway isn’t lacking a large talent pool of energy experts. Having relied heavily on the oil and gas industry in the last century, the country is now looking for new solutions, according to Stene. This has recently led to the creation of numerous climate and energy startups: Tibber, Photoncycle and Wattif, to name a few.
Although Norway has some of the cheapest electricity prices in the world due to abundant hydropower, it also has high demand due to having the most EVs per capita in the world. It’s no surprise that so many companies in the country operate in this space. But as the next generation of energy startups emerges from Norway, they need investors with an international mindset, according to Helmikstøl.
“If we lack the competency, experience and mindset to do this properly, we will never get there as a nation. We will struggle immensely,” he says.
“All of the great companies will just get international investors instead because that's where they actually find someone who can help them grow the business.”
Read the whole interview with Jonas Helmikstøl here.
— Mimi Billing, Europe editor
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