Statoil Technology Invest Met With Ten Innovative GCE Subsea Members

GCE Subsea arranged an event 7 February, where some of our most promising SME’s got the opportunity to pitch and speed-date with Statoil Technology Invest (STI). A unique opportunity for the companies to showcase their technology.

The event took place at BTO’s Nyskapingsparken at Vilvite, where GCE Subsea has a co-working space with the other ocean industries clusters in the region. Statoil sportily made themselves available with a strong team, with representatives from Statoil Technology Invest (STI), Statoil Innovation, Statoil R & T (Research and Technology) and Statoil D & W (Drilling and Well).

Pitching and Speed-dating

The day started with each company giving a 10-minute pitch- and after lunch they each had a 20-minute follow-up meeting with Statoil. From GCE Subsea the following 10 companies took part:

• Inovatum Lifting
• Imenco
• Karsten Moholt
• Metas
• Moonshine Solutions
• Westcon Olvondo
• Pipe Pilot
• Scandinavian Reach Technologies
• WellGuard
• Wisub

Director of STI, Kristin Aamodt was very pleased with the format of the event and the inspiring environment at BTO’s Nyskapingsparken. – It was very useful and an efficient way for us to meet so many innovative companies, all, in the course of one day. Many of them offer solutions that we will definitely follow up on, she said. – For some of them we will first connect them with the right specialists within Statoil to receive a more in-depth evaluation before we consider them as a potential candidates for investment, she concluded.

Satisfied Participants

One of GCE Subsea’s new members, WellGuard from Odda, has already started engaging with the cluster. They are currently attending one of our ACCEL courses, and they took the trip all the way from Odda to join this event. – A key element to achieve success in developing new technology in the oil industry, is to obtain interest from customers early in the process, said Eirik Espe, CEO of WellGuard. – In light of this, sessions like speed-dating with large players like Statoil is efficient and definitely valuable, as one is able to evaluate customer needs and market interest in what you are developing.

John Roger Nesje, newly appointed CEO of Scandinavian Reach Technologies had his first encounter with GCE Subsea, and was thankful for a great session. – This gave us, together with others, the opportunity to present our innovations and technology to Statoil Technology Invest. It was a really good meeting place between innovative teams and entrepreneurs and a big player such as STI, which normally would not be so easy to access, Nesje said. – Today's session gave us a follow-up appointment with Statoil that may lead to further good cooperation possibilities, he concluded.