Private Equity funds in Norway 2023Activity Report 2023

Norwegian portfolio companies received investments of NOK 16.3 billion from Norwegian and foreign PE funds. This is almost half of the received investments in 2022, and a further decrease from the record-breaking investment numbers of 2021. Most of the capital (NOK 12.9 billion) was invested by foreign fund managers.

The decrease in investments of 2023 were driven by the buyout segment, where the invested amount declined by 56 percent. Conversely, the venture segment saw the amount of capital invested more than double. This significant surge was primarily driven by seven transactions, collectively representing over 50 percent of the capital invested into the venture segment.

Norwegian companies in the transportation sector attracted the most capital of all sectors, nearly NOK 3.3 billion. This was driven by a few large transactions.

The IT sector attracted second most capital with NOK 2.9 billion invested. This represents a decline by over 80 percent from 2022. This is the lowest amount invested in the sector since 2016. However, the decline comes after two years with high investment activity. The level was especially high in 2021 when almost NOK 32 billion was invested in the sector. The cleantech sector attracted as much capital as the ICT sector. Despite invested amount in the sector declined compared to 2022, the investment level is far above the historical average.

Despite the number of investments in the IT sector dropped more than 40 percent, the sector was the most popular sector in terms of number of investments. The number of investments was second highest in the cleantech sector with 34 investments, closely followed by the life science sector which attracted 33 investments.

Companies within business related products and industry products experienced the largest growth in the number of investments. In 2023, the sector attracted 20 investments, six more than in 2022. The number of investments also increased within the chemicals and materials sector, from 8 in 2022 to 13 in 2023.

29 exits from Norwegian portfolio companies were made in 2023, at a value of NOK 3.2 billion. This is a 19 percent increase from the previous year, when 22 exits were made at a value of NOK 2.7 billion.