Innovation Norway Start-up Grants (Oppstartstilskudd)

Start-up Grant Phase 1 — Market Clarification

Funds young Norwegian start-ups validating market need and business feasibility in their early growth journey.

Start-up Grant Phase 1 (Oppstartstilskudd Markedsavklaring / Market Clarification) is the entry-point grant from Innovation Norway for young Norwegian companies. The grant provides NOK 100,000 to NOK 150,000 to test the business idea, validate the customer problem, confirm initial market interest, and prepare the foundation for Phase 2 (Commercialisation).

Phase 1 funds focused early-stage activities: customer interviews, market analysis, prototype development, business model exploration, and IP analysis. The deliverable is a clear go/no-go decision on whether to proceed to commercialisation, supported by evidence of market need and customer interest.

Eligible companies are Norwegian-registered (AS), typically under 5 years old, with an innovative business idea and significant growth potential. The applicant must demonstrate that the team has the capability to execute on the idea, that the addressable market is sufficiently large, and that there is a credible scalable business model with international ambition.

Startups (younger than three years) with Innovation Norway financing have an average annual additional growth in sales revenue of 21.49 percentage points compared to companies without such support, per Innovation Norway's 2023 facts and numbers report.

In 2023, Innovation Norway granted just over NOK 2 billion to startups (up significantly from NOK 1.5 billion in 2022). Start-up Grants are one of the main vehicles within that envelope.