OBOS is the largest housing provider company in Norway, investing into startups related to their areas of operational excellence: real estate and construction. They can be either an investor, a client, or both for a startup.
They seek software startups, but don’t mind them using hardware assets. Marketplace companies can also be interesting if there’s an especially well-demonstrated product-market fit. Even though Norway and Sweden are their home market, their startup investments tend to be to companies that are internationally scalable.
They prefer to invest into startups that have some traction, ideally already some customers lined up.
They haven’t been interested in blockchain startups due to their low levels of success so far.
Most often they invest as part of a syndicate. They usually do not lead the investment rounds to avoid creating too much dependency, typically being already a client and an investor.
Their typical ownership stake in a portfolio company is 5-10%.
They also have a separate team making later stage investments. They sometimes describe their investments range as “From startup to stock exchange.”
Ticket size: €200k-€1,000k, sweet spot €500k, maximum allocation with follow-on investments €2,500k per company