Since SSI was established in February 2016 the company has managed without investors. It has been very difficult, but it is possible wen people works for free and you have funding from Innovation Norway and Forskningsrådet (Thank you very much!!) Our initial goal was to have machine ready for serial production before inviting investors in. We now understand that if we got some initial funding from investors, and investors with the right spirit and knowledge, we might develop faster.
For the last 6-12 months we have had many people that had been contacting us for investments. We wanted our investors to commit to the company almost like ourselves. Therefore, we would like to choose the right ones.
Therefore, the board of SSI decided to sell 15% of the shares and invite a small group of investors in. The investors are TRK group (Trond Riiber Knudsen) and local investors from Sandefjord. With this mix, SSI got both new funding as well as knowledge, as well as Shee Holding and Bækkelaget holding. This was a very wise decision. With this investor mix we got a group of long-term investors with knowledge and experience that makes us better, in the same time as we got additional funding to continue to develop our equipment.
Trond Riiber Knudsen was one of them. He is used to work with start ups so it was OK to invite him to our workshop. It was a very wise decision to get him onboard. Together with Einar Abrahamsen and other investors they have delivered know how, contacts and strategy thinking which we did not have.
We still must be very careful with our financials, but we are now capable of starting to raise an organization that our company will need to succeed globally.
