New corporate partner: Statens Vegvesen
Our family of corporate partners is growing! We are happy and proud to present Statens Vegvesen as our new partner at StartupLab. Statens Vegvesen will naturally also step into our industry program MobilityLab.
There are many ways StartupLab help founders build great tech companies, but few things are as important as market validation. This is why we are working actively with leading Norwegian corporates. We strongly believe that by partnering with established companies, we’ll get them closer to our startups and increase the chances of commercial agreements. Since our first corporate partner joined in 2013, the number of partners has grown steadily, and a number of commercial agreements, pilot projects, corporate investments and other business opportunities have materialized.
Statens Vegvesen is an administrative body and a state service provider subject to the Ministry of Transport and Communications. They are responsible for planning and building, operating and maintaining national and European roads. Additionally, they are responsible for both road users and vehicles. This makes them the most prominent participant in the road transport sector in Norway. In 2019 Statens Vegvesen had 6619 employees.
Statens Vegvesen strives to provide a smart and continuous road transport system for all of Norway. Travelling and transporting goods should be simple — on roads that are safe and designed for future needs.
In the years to come, the number of journeys and road users in Norway will be growing. There will be more people who walk, cycle or use public transport. In other words, there will be more people to share the road. This means that transport in the future must become more efficient, take up less space and produce less noise and pollution. The role of Statens Vegvesen is to develop smart solutions that serve this purpose to the greatest extent possible — without limiting people’s freedom to travel or restricting the transport of goods.
In this future, digital solutions will become increasingly important. New technology will help make everyday life easier, safer and greener.
Some of Statens Vegvesen key areas of interest:
- Facilitate efficient and reliable public transport solutions
- Predictive maintenance and effective road operations
- New technology to improve and enforce road safety
- Environmentally-friendly construction technology
- New ways of planning, constructing and operating roads and infrastructure
- Intelligent transportation solutions (ITS)
- Technology for improved insight on mobility patterns (eg. improve the existing “reisevaneundersøkelsen” i.e. Travel habit surveys)
- Increase use of existing data (eg. NVDB)
- Data standardization and open source
- Tools to predict, respond and secure infrastructure in light of extreme weather
If your startup is working with any of the technologies above, please reach out to oyvind@startuplab.no, and we will be more than happy to get in touch!
Statens Vegvesen is looking to further strengthen the relationship with their suppliers, and startups in particular. One of the defining success criteria for this is measured through pilot projects. Statens Vegvesen is not new to pilots though— here are a few inspiring examples: Stor Oslo, and Statens Vegvesens programme for ITS pilots 2018–2023.
“Through the partnership with StartupLab, we are hoping to achieve more pilot projects — especially with startups!”
— Ingrid Dahl Hovland, CEO at Statens Vegvesen
Statens Vegvesen is arguably the most influential body in transportation and mobility in Norway, and will naturally be a strategically important partner in StartupLab’s industry program MobilityLab — the leading network of startups and corporate partners within mobility & transportation! Statens Vegvesen with their competencies within construction, roads and road operation will add valuable and supplementary insight to MobilityLab.
We’re very happy to have Statens Vegvesen onboard, and look forward to work together to increase the chances that more great tech companies are built out of Norway, and perhaps especially within the mobility & transportation industry!
