Entrepreneurial spirit is readily apparent in SINTEF TTO, which has become quite a well-established and mature company.
The minds behind the company maintain that they have found the ideal recipe for creating commercial success for new technologies. SINTEF TTO’s headquarters are in the sparsely populated and cold northern reaches of Norway, far from Silicon Valley, Tokyo, London and Paris.
Since the 1980s, the spin-off environment at SINTEF has delivered a continuous stream of start-up companies.
The Draghi Report
Europe's leaders heaved heavy sighs in response to the report by the former European Central Bank President Mario Draghi that came out last autumn. Draghi analysed European competitiveness, seen in light of the rest of the world and concluded that Europe must change course. Unless productivity and growth are increased, Europe cannot become a leader in new technologies, global climate work, or be an independent international player and finance the social model. Several EU leaders, including Italian politician Enrico Letta and French president Emmanuel Macron, have pointed to existential crossroads similar to those described by Draghi.
The technology entrepreneurs
TTO stands for ‘Technology Transfer Office’. In practice this means that this group’s task is to find ideas that they believe can grow into something big – a business generator founded on new technologies and that can also invest in start-up companies.
New ideas are born by the researchers at SINTEF, while TTO turns the ideas into a company – which is managed tightly and professionally – and helps bring them to market with capital from its own investment funds. The commercialization process is a resource-intensive activity with high risk.
The method developed by SINTEF TTO works. The SINTEF spin-off SpinChip, one of the companies that received start-up help here, was recently acquired for €138 million by a French group that operates in medical diagnostics technology.
Basic facts about SINTEF TTO
SINTEF TTO is responsible for SINTEF's own commercialization and manages the investment funds. The funds invest in start-up companies, which in turn receive seed capital. SINTEF's own funds have so far invested NOK 500 million (EUR 42 million) in 42 companies. In addition, external investors have contributed a total of NOK three billion (EUR 250 million). Several of the companies have been sold to larger companies.
We have the solution
Investment manager Jostein Bjøndal offers coffee in the attic of the brick building that houses SINTEF’s headquarters, not far from Rosenborg Football Club’s home ground at Lerkendal Stadium. This is where he, CEO Anders Lian and five other investment managers carry out their work. The team also includes a skilled coordinator who keeps track of the calendar, finances and schedule, an investment advisor and a finance manager. Not exactly a gigantic organization, in other words.
The percolating coffee machine is a simple model, and the investment manager’s space-efficient office under the pitched roof doesn’t exactly give the impression of big finance.
Modest surroundings notwithstanding, millions of euros are managed here on behalf of investors at home and abroad. Money is needed for small technological seeds to germinate and form solid roots.
“I think we’ve developed a very special formula,” says the investment manager. “No other research institutes in Europe apply this exact model in their work with budding projects. We have the solution to Draghi’s innovation problem.”
“So what’s the secret?”
“We have no secrets. We’re happy to share. More coffee?”
From microtechnology to fish feed
SINTEF TTO’s portfolio includes technologies ranging from medical sensors to innovative aquaculture feed. Many of the companies were born out of the partial findings from research projects in the field of sustainability. Cartesian is a company that is now growing thanks to the TTO and started as a demonstrator in just such a project. Their invention is a huge biological “battery.”
Cartesian was recently honoured with two different innovation awards, the Nordic Innovation Award 2025 and Design Plus 2025, which is a sustainability award. Today, the company has six employees and has secured agreements in Norway, Denmark, France, Czechia and the Middle East.
Idea born in a backpack
The story behind the company began around January 2016.
That’s when the young newlywed research couple Alexis Sevault and Maria Justo Alonso exited their apartment in Trondheim. Their backpacks were packed and the tickets to take them around the world were paid for. A little more than a year’s worth of savings and a renter who would take over the couple’s housing expenses while they were away made the trip possible.
The idea that was born on a trip around the world by Cartesian founder Alexis Sevault and his wife Maria Justo Alonso on a diving trip near Cairns, Australia in 2016. Photo: Private
“We were already established researchers. But we were also young and curious and wanted to take a break to restart a bit. For me, the trip started a thought process that ended with the question: ‘What do I really want to do now?’” says Sevault.
The answer turned out to be something as simple, and simultaneously difficult, as further building his expertise in his field of work and using his knowledge for something completely new that the world needs. His idea was to develop a thermal battery. The energy would come from renewable energy sources. And phase change materials, or PCM, would provide the energy storage.
The application winner
Back at his research job in Trondheim, the Frenchman is applying for internal project funding that would further develop and demonstrate the battery technology. His goal was to use it in an industrial context. He received the needed support from both SINTEF Energy’s own research funds and the Research Council of Norway.
“As a researcher, you’re used to putting a lot of work into applications and quite often not getting through the eye of the needle. The competition is fierce. The process is emotional. You have to learn not to take it personally. So the fact that I received support for this was a real victory,” says Sevault.
The funding also brought other committed colleagues from SINTEF and NTNU into the development work.
The zero-emission building
Around the same time, NTNU was getting ready to build a zero-emission building to serve as a large laboratory for testing renewable technologies intended for the buildings of the future. The building was named the ZEB-lab for Zero Emission Building.
Founder Alexis Sevault and SINTEF researcher Fride Vullum-Bruer checking the very first biobattery located in the zero-emission building ZEB-lab.
“Inger Andresen, the project manager at NTNU, somewhat surprisingly, took our work on board. When she contacted me to have a demonstrator built, I didn’t need much persuading,” Sevault says.
The biobattery’s task in the ZEB-lab was to collect heat from the solar panels on the outside of the building and release the heat indoors.
All of this added a unique card to the future founder’s hand. When the ZEB-lab was completed, he could prove that the technology, which had since been significantly improved, worked in practice. Perhaps, he thought, this could become a spin-off company? He had to check out the idea with someone who knew about such matters. And soon the snowball rolled in the direction of SINTEF TTO.
The biological battery
From the outside, the invention resembles a shipping container. But what is inside can provide heat for an entire building – even in winter.
This is possible because the container is filled with a phase change material called biowax. PCMs can store heat or cold – and release it again when needed. The technology has aroused interest among customers in many European countries and in the Middle East. Due to global warming, the need for cooling is predicted to be greater than the need for heating, possibly as early as 2050.
The biological battery easily passes the first litmus test that the technology transfer professionals at SINTEF TTO apply to every new idea:
- The technology must solve a major problem.
- It must be innovative and unique, and preferably patentable.
- The market for the solution must be at least as big as the problem.
A brilliant idea is not enough
The idea has to be more than just brilliant. We need to have faith that it can become a commercial success. Otherwise, our response is no, says investment manager Jostein Bjøndal. It can be very disappointing for everyone when that happens.
The application process is a brutal exercise, but it has also meant that we have a higher success rate than other funds that do the same thing. We get more people to the finish line.
The SINTEF TTO formula
- The research communities at SINTEF submit ideas and new technologies from their academic communities.
- The ideas are assessed against certain criteria. The most important criteria are that the technology can solve a major problem, that it is unique and that there is a large enough market for it.
- Project funds from various sources – of which The Research Council of Norway’s FORNY programme is the most important – provide money for possible further development and commercialization.
- SINTEF TTO manages the investment funds that can invest in the established companies. This step is important to demonstrate real faith in the technology.
- The investors in these funds include SINTEF, as well as other fund investors from Norway and abroad. One of Europe's major fund investors – the European Investment Fund (EIF) – is the largest external investor in these funds. The funds are measured exclusively by their returns.
- In addition, other investors are also invited to invest in the established companies. This is important to ensure that the companies have sufficient capital, capacity and expertise available, and also serves as a quality check.
- The founders and their team also invest in the company. Participating in such a newly established company should be an attractive option.
- A profit-sharing model ensures that it is profitable for the professional academic communities to engage in commercialization.
- The organization is built up of technologists and economists, expertise in business development and investment activities, and administrative personnel.
Deal
The solution offered by Cartesian had what it took, but could the same be said for the young Frenchman? SINTEF TTO’s demands were that he had to quit his research job and at the same time help finance the start-up. The demands from entrepreneur Sevault were that the company should be up and running by 1 September of the same year, and that SINTEF TTO should finance the company during the start-up phase, before the first external investors would jump in. They all agreed.
“The idea has to be more than just brilliant. We need to have faith that it can become a commercial success.
“Didn’t you find it scary to quit a secure job in such a good working environment?” Sevault was asked.
“I’m not afraid to try something new – especially when the technology works and plays such an important role in the green shift,” he answers. “No jobs are totally secure anyway. And besides, I trusted the people at SINTEF TTO, and they trusted me – despite the fact that I had two young children. I was a little worried that that might scare them off,” he laughs.
Kay Arne Bølestrand, master plumber at Granbo VVS and co-founder Håkon Selvnes at Cartesian’s newest heating battery. It is located on SINTEF’s own premises and will heat an entire building with offices.
“But they said parents of young children are good at prioritizing what’s important and what isn’t, and are efficient workers as well. So they gave us the green light to go ahead. And I’d also gained SINTEF researcher Håkon Selvnes on the founding team. He’s a project rockstar. Together we had all the technological expertise we needed to get started with Cartesian,” Sevault said.
Used everything we learned
Investment Manager Asle Hovda at SINTEF TTO was given the task of creating a business plan with the team, recruiting an external CEO and then forming the company.
“Cartesian is the newest company we’ve established, and we’ve used everything we’ve learned since we established SINTEF TTO almost forty years ago, in 1987. And that is no small thing,” says Hovda.
Forming a company can be a painful process at times, according to Hovda. A researcher can be tops in their field, but that doesn’t mean that you are a born CEO.
An important part of the success formula is therefore to build a team that is professional in every aspect.
TTO is responsible for assembling the management team of the new company, finding the money needed to develop the technology, and paying the researcher’s salary during the establishment process. TTO’s investment managers usually sit on the boards of the companies while they are being established. Hovda is the chair of Cartesian, for example.
“The money, which is a critical part of the machinery, is raised through investors who inject seed capital into our venture funds. And in practice, they are only measured by one thing – their ability to generate returns.
So far, SINTEF TTO has built up a financial muscle that consists of three different funds. A total of NOK 1.3 billion (109 million EUR) is managed here.
“It’s been hard work and has taken a lot of years. But it costs money to establish a technology company,” says Hovda.
Innovation in the USA vs. EU
Since early 2000, real disposable income per capita has grown about twice as much in the USA as in the EU. But productivity in the USA and the EU is quite similar if you remove the technology sector from the equation, and tilts in favour of the EU. In the EU, the three largest investors in research and development at that time were the automotive industry, and they remain so today. In the USA, the automotive industry and the pharmaceutical industry were in the top three, but now the list only includes tech companies. Source: NHO
Skeptical fund investors?
A distinctive feature of the SINTEF TTO model is that one group both owns the idea and commercializes it, and also manages investment funds that can inject money into the companies to further develop the technology. For this to work well, each of these roles must be managed professionally and in an orderly fashion.
Combining these two roles has not been achieved by anyone else in Europe, says Bjøndal. The key is that in the fund management business we have to be entirely financially driven.
“We have now established so many companies with such a high success rate that even the most discerning technology investors come to us with their money. According to Marjut Falkstedt, the CEO of the European Investment Fund (EIF), we’re now one of Europe’s most important players.
“You would have to look far and wide for a better investment fund in the industry. To date EIF has invested NOK 500 million (c. EUR 50 million) through us, in three stages. When they come to us for the third time, then we know we’re in,” Bjøndal grins.
Personal chemistry as capital
But how does establishing a new company happen in practice? Knowledge, networks, experience and money are all necessary. In addition, personal chemistry has proven to be absolutely crucial.
“Now we’ve established so many companies with such a high success rate that even the most discerning technology investors come to us with their money.
“What we’re looking for are people who know how to develop a company,” says Hovda. “But the people we connect with have to be on the same wavelength, they need to understand the technology, and they have to be able to work together. They simply have to like each other – a lot.”
According to Hovda, the search for the right personal chemistry is akin to a demanding “dating process.” Sometimes it can take as long as three to four years to find the right match.
Former colleague to the rescue
Sevault’s search for his dream business partner was a long hunt. Several candidates were interviewed. “Love at first sight” did not happen. But then the right person appeared from an unexpected source.
That was a chance meeting between two old colleagues: Asle Hovda and Frode Iglebæk. Iglebæk was was well acquainted with both SINTEF TTO and SINTEF. His background included an interest in energy technologies, experience as a serial entrepreneur and in the consulting industry, and a formal education foundation in NTNU’s Industrial Ecology environment. He also happened to live in Trondheim.
Maybe the right person for the job as CEO is actually just down the street, Hovda thought. Two days later, he picked up his phone, looked up the name Iglebæk and dialled the number.
“The timing was perfect,” says Iglebæk in his distinct southern-Norwegian accent. “I had spent 20 years in the consulting industry and wanted to build something new and from scratch. Something that could make a difference. Cartesian is working on the world’s biggest challenge – providing the world with enough green energy.”
But would he and Sevault find the right rapport?
“We went through a healthy round of professional dating, yes,” says Iglebæk and laughs. “But there weren’t many hitches. Sevault and I share a worldview. We have pretty similar personalities, the same preferences and what we might call a technological leaning. We quickly realized that we could work well together.”
Perfect match: Frode Iglebæk and Alexis Servault. Photo: Karoline Ravndal Lorentzen
Sales, sales and chasing money
Two years later, Cartesian’s premises in Trondheim are in full swing. But perhaps there is just as much activity farther afield. The technology will be presented at conferences, and installations of the solution will be installed in Denmark, the Middle East, Czechia and France, as well as in one of SINTEF’s new buildings. And last but not least, the hunt for investors is underway. Countless meetings are needed to raise the necessary capital to take the company to the next level.
“It’s important to have a clear pitch. The meetings are short. In 30 minutes we present the technology and talk to the potential investor. These are professionals who have one goal – to get value for what they invest,” says Iglebæk.
Today, Cartesian has six employees, and most of them have invested their own money in the company. The biological battery, which has now been named Thermal Box, recently received innovation awards, and Iglebæk and Sevault have just landed a new issue.
“What is the most important thing you have learned through SINTEF TTO, Alexis?”
“Understanding that technology is not everything,” he says. “We have to think business. All the time. Nothing can grow without hitting a market. I’ve gone from being a technologist to also becoming a business person. How crucial this combination is – that’s the most important thing I’ve learned.”
