Ep. 55 Nourishing and Strengthening Norway’s Fintech Ecosystem - Hans Christian Bjørne, CEO at the Factory Innovation

In our attempt to uncover what makes Nordic fintech exceptional, we recently visited Oslo, the modern capital city of Norway. We couldn’t help notice that in spite of it being a market with a limited reach, at least from a B2C perspective, Norway has recently produced a row of remarkable companies that are reshaping how financial services addresses some of the most concerning problems for Nordic societies. With its strong values and open society, as well as a highly digital savvy population, Norwegian entrepreneurs are leaving their mark across the fintech spectrum. For example in areas like Impact, where companies like Empower.ico, an Environmental and Fintech company are using blockchain to create a circular economy and deposit system for waste plastics. Or important proponents of identity and security solutions like Signicat, now a European leader in digital identity, or Zwipe which is enabling biometry for digital security on credit cards.  Other relevant examples include Viips, a payment spinoff from one of Norway’s largest banks and , ZTL and Dintero which are making payments simple and convenient.  But perhaps the most progressive approach to fintech comes from companies operating in the crypto space like Firi, the Nordics largest crypto-exchange or Dune analytics and Nansen.ai who are providing real time data on the crypto and NFT markets.

To better understand the origins of all this innovation and the vision for Norway as a fintech powerhouse, we sat down with Hans Christian Bjorne, Co-Founder of The Factory and CEO of the Factory Innovation. In this chat you’ll learn more about the Norwegian approach to entrepreneurship and scalability, the advantages of launching and testing your proof of concept in a highly digital market and the transition to a global mindset that is helping Norway flourish as a fintech powerhouse.