About GEN in Norway

Norway has been part of the Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) movement since the campaign's early years, joining the worldwide celebration of entrepreneurship as the Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN) was taking shape. By 2011, the national campaign was being coordinated by Foreningen Norsk Gründerforum, drawing 1,850 participants across seven activities with five partner organizations. In 2012, Francis Stevens George — co-founder of GründernesHus, an Oslo-based incubator, accelerator and co-working space — served as the primary leader of GEW Norway, and the Norwegian Entrepreneurs Club took on the coordination role for the campaign. That same year, Norwegian Rain finished third in the Creative Business Cup, a global competition anchored to GEW, where the brand pitched alongside finalists from 17 countries before His Royal Highness Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark in Copenhagen. 

GEN's relationship with Norway deepened in 2015, when it formalized independent operations in the country alongside affiliates in Algeria, Greenland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Moldova, Namibia, Poland, South Africa and South Korea. That year's GEW campaign in Norway, run by Exhibition Management AS, featured 95 activities and 47 partner organizations engaging 6,695 participants. From 2016 onward, the national entity became known as GEN Norway, and Jorgen Eriksson stepped into the role of Managing Director — a position he held through 2022, anchoring the country's engagement across GEW, the Startup Nations community and GEN's wider research and policy networks. 

Norwegian policymakers and ecosystem leaders have been visible in GEN's policy community over the years. Startup Norway was an early member of the Startup Nations community in 2016, joining peers in shared work on regulatory ideas to help startups scale. Innovation Norway, the country's state-owned development bank, and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries have anchored the public-sector side of the ecosystem, while several individuals have brought private-sector and impact-investing perspectives into the GEN community. 

Norway's standing in entrepreneurship research has been a recurring theme in GEN's flagship reports. The 2021 Index of Dynamic Entrepreneurship (IDE), published by GEN with PRODEM, ranked Norway second globally — placing it among the top five ecosystems for dynamic entrepreneurship alongside the United States, the Netherlands, Germany and Sweden. The University of South-Eastern Norway, represented by Peter Lindelof, is a member of the Global Entrepreneurship Research Network, contributing to the cross-border collaboration of economists and academic institutions that shapes GEN's research agenda. The country's ecosystem performance has also been profiled through the Global Startup Ecosystem Report (GSER), the annual study GEN co-publishes with Startup Genome. 

GEN has a direct connection to Norwegian startups through the Entrepreneurship World Cup (EWC), the global pitch competition GEN runs with Monsha'at offering $1 million in annual cash prizes for some of the most promising startups in roughly 200 countries. Sandnes-based Desert Control, led by Ole Kristian Sivertsen, President and CEO, reached the EWC 100 in 2022 and went on to win the Sustainability and Environment Sector Category award at the Global Finals — a $50,000 prize recognizing the company's patented Liquid Natural Clay technology, which converts arid sandy soils into productive farmland in hours rather than years. Sivertsen has been a member of the GEN Starters Club since March 2023, the global community of founders sourced through GEN programs that connects them with mentors, peers and potential investors. 

GEN maintains relationships with key Norwegian ecosystem stakeholders, including Innovation Norway, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries, the Norwegian Entrepreneurs Club (Gründerklubben), Social Impact Lab Norway, GründernesHus and the University of South-Eastern Norway. These partnerships span research, policy, programming and direct startup support, reflecting the breadth of Norway's entrepreneurial community. 

Jonathan Ortmans, Founder and President of GEN, has engaged with Norwegian counterparts over the years through GEN's congresses, summits and policy convenings, providing counsel on the global dimensions of the country's innovation ecosystem. GEN's ongoing mission in Norway is to connect founders, investors, researchers and policymakers to the wider international community, ensuring Norwegian innovation continues to find audiences, partners and capital well beyond its borders.