In 2025, Norinnova’s incubator, Startup IX, celebrates its 25th anniversary, marking a quarter of a century as a key innovation engine in Northern Norway. What began in 2000 as Inkubator Tromsø, a “hatchery for good ideas” established by Forskningsparken Tromsø, has since helped more than 400 start-ups through advice, follow-up and a unique entrepreneurial environment.
Norinnova’s incubator was established in 2000 as Inkubator Tromsø and soon helped give rise to companies such as Well Diagnostics and ProBio Nutraceuticals. In 2019, the incubator changed its name to Startup IX, and in 2025 we divided the incubator offering into thematic areas: ocean, health, tech and space.
For 25 years, the incubator has been a driving force in creating new companies, developing jobs and building a stronger business community in Northern Norway. Our role is to help entrepreneurs grow, succeed and contribute to value creation and export revenues for Norway.
The incubator programme is a collaboration between Norinnova, Siva and Troms County, a partnership that began when Siva established the programme 25 years ago. Since then, we have worked side by side to develop an innovation environment that creates new opportunities and the jobs of the future in the region.
Through the incubator, entrepreneurs receive more than just office space. We provide advice and expertise, access to capital, a vibrant ecosystem and valuable networks that open doors for our members.
The incubator journey in Northern Norway began when Forskningsparken Tromsø established Inkubator Tromsø in 2000. At the time, Elisabeth Blix Bakkelund was the incubator manager responsible for the newly established concept.
“The incubator concept is a service aimed at entrepreneurs. Forskningsparken Tromsø provides selected companies with affordable premises, organised advice and follow-up, as well as networks and a supportive environment during the establishment phase, ”, Elisabeth Blix Bakkelund said in an interview with the newspaper Nordlys on 13 January 2001, in connection with the official opening of Inkubator Tromsø.
The incubator was established with 17 offices and 32 workspaces in a separate “building within the building” in the glass atrium of Building 1 at Tromsø Science Park
At the beginning of 2001, the first start-ups moved into the incubator: Well Diagostics og ProBio Nutraceuticals. Well Diagnostics was founded by Pål Myklebust and sold to DIPS in 2008. It was the first academic spin-out from Norut Medicine and Health.
ProBio Nutraceuticals was founded by Stein Ulve and Per Benjaminsen.ProBio marketed dietary supplements, ingredients for functional foods and marine feed
In 2008, the company was renamed Ayanda. Today it has several offshoots, including Vitux group (Concordix), Nordic Pharma, and other companies with factories in Germany and Finland.
The official opening of Inkubator Tromsø took place in April 2001. Among those present was Stein Ulve from the newly established ProBio.
“The most important thing for us has probably been having an address at Forskningsparken”, said ProBio CEO Stein Ulve in an interview with Nordlys on 12 January 2001.
Twenty-five years after Stein Ulve moved into the offices in Building 1 at Forskningsparken, he is back with a new company in the incubator. This time, the serial entrepreneur has joined with Laponicum. Laponicum.
“At present, only a small number of medicines originate from nature, so the potential is enormous,” says Stein Ulve, founder of Laponicum.
Laponicum is developing, among other things, a product that may help prevent age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the most common cause of blindness among older people.
“Laponicum means ‘from Lapland’ in Latin, symbolising that our medicines come from the natural environment here in the North,” says Stein Ulve.
Stein is pleased to be back in the incubator and describes it as coming full circle:
“When we started our previous company, ProBio Nutraceuticals, 25 years ago, we had to build many parts of the business from scratch while launching products in demanding international markets. Being part of the incubator provided valuable support at an early stage.
Today, international competition is far tougher and more complex. It is therefore both valuable and impressive to see how Norinnova’s incubator as developed broad, solid and relevant expertise over these 25 years to support companies aiming to succeed globally.
Returning to the incubator with a new business idea and being part of such a capable environment feels like coming full circle,” says Stein Ulve.
Over the years, Norinnova has supported many start-ups. Through our technology transfer services and our student offering, Student IX, we have taken part in the journeys of several start-ups originating from UiT. Keenious, KinSea Lead Discovery, Medisindagboka, Unifractal, Medsensio, Chip NanoImaging and Abdera are some examples.
KinSea Lead Discovery is a spin-off from UiT The Arctic University of Norway, the University of Bergen and Lead Discovery Center GmbH.
“Our first DOFI was submitted to Norinnova in 2014, followed by new disclosures in 2019 and 2022,” says Jeanette Hammer Andersen, CEO and co-founder of KinSea Lead Discovery.
KinSea was established in 2022 and is a biotechnology start-up searching the ocean for the medicines of the future. The company develops marine bioactive compounds into pharmaceutically active products based on discoveries from marine bioprospecting at UiT.
The company is based at Tromsø Science Park and is part of Norinnova’s ecosystem as a member of the incubator.
Read more about how KinSea and Marbio work with marine bioprospecting on their websites.
“We are pleased to be part of Forskningsparken and the innovation environment here. It provides a strong starting point for our main focus: developing new compounds that can become new medicines, particularly in areas of great need such as the treatment of acute myeloid leukaemia (AML),” says Jeanette Hammer Andersen.
Another start-up originating from UiT is Abdera, established in 2022 by Johannes H. Nilsen, Erland Grimstad, Jonas Myhre and Markus Tiller. At the time, two of the founders were students in computer science and applied statistics and mathematics.
As students, they received help through Norinnova’s student services, Student IX, to develop their idea and take the step towards establishing a company
“Our relationship with Norinnova began before we had even incorporated the company. As inexperienced founders, we received valuable help in the start-up phase. We received advice through Student IX and were admitted to the first Arctic Ignite cohort. We saw our admission to Arctic Ignite as confirmation that we had a strong idea with significant potential ”, says Johannes H. Nilsen, co-founder of Abdera.
The company develops an AI tool for moderating content online and on social media. In addition to being an incubator company, Abdera has participated in both Arctic Ignite and Scaleup IX. The company has been co-located with Norinnova as a tenant since it was established.og
Abdera’s product has three core functions
After being admitted to Arctic Ignite, the company also received office space at Norinnova. Johannes describes the programme and sharing office space with other start-ups as enormously valuable during the early phase.
“Winning the jury prize of NOK 500,000 through Arctic Ignite was absolutely decisive in ensuring that we still exist three years later,” says Johannes.
The company continues to gain satisfied customers in Norway and abroad, and Johannes highlights Norinnova as an important supporter along the way:
“When we have needed it most, Norinnova has stepped up and helped. Norinnova has been crucial both to our decision to start the company and to the fact that we are still here and continue to sign new customers,” s ays Johannes
Abdera still consists of the same team that started the company three years ago. Johannes is CEO, Erland is a machine learning engineer, Markus is CTO and Jonas is an active board member.
The company has achieved a great deal in three years, and its progress will be exciting to follow:
“We have raised our first investment round, signed several of Norway’s largest media companies as customers, and are now expanding into the rest of Europe. Our product now works so well that customers tell us it would be a crisis without us ”, Johannes says.
An important part of Norinnova’s role in developing start-ups is helping more companies enter new markets and grow internationally. This creates export revenues for Norway, an important effect of the work carried out by the public support system. It is a demanding task, and not every company succeeds in achieving international growth.
Companies such as Keenious and Lifeness have participated in several Norinnova programmes, including the Scaleup IX growth programme. Both are strong examples of companies that have successfully scaled internationally.
Keenious joined the first Scaleup IX cohort in 2020. The company develops an AI-based tool that finds relevant academic sources for students and researchers based on what they write.
Some of the world’s largest and most recognised universities are already customers, and the company continues to expandits international team. The company began its journey with Norinnova in 2018, STUD-ENT, also known as the “Student Million”.
Read more about Keenious here: https://keenious.com/landing
Lifeness is another company in our incubator that has grown and gained international market share, including in Germany and several other European countries. Lifeness develops an innovative digital therapy (DTx) for treating obesity and other cardiovascular conditions.
The company has participated in several Norinnova programmes and has attracted tens of millions of Norwegian kroner in external investment capital, which is essential for start-ups aiming to scale.
Norinnova invests in two to four early-stage companies each year. Three companies were recently selected for potential investment through the Arctic Ignite programme.. Perhaps some of them will appear on the international stage in the years ahead?
Norinnova has been part of the national incubator programme since it began A new ten-year programme period started in 2023, and after the first year Siva ranked Norinnova as one of the best incubators among the programme’s 35 operators.
Since the beginning of the previous ten-year period in 2013, Norinnova has supported more than 200 start-ups, which together have raised well over NOK 500 million in private and public funding. Funding is only one of the areas in which Startup IX can help. Access to networks and one-to-one sparring are also services from which many members benefit greatly. Startup IX, og tilgang på nettverk og 1-1 sparring er også tjenester mange av våre medlemmer høster stort utbytte fra.
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