Ørn Software goes public after raising NOK 250 million

Written by Viking Venture 29. Mar 2021
Picture from left: Joar Welde, Partner Viking Venture and Chairman of the Board, Erik Hagen, Managing Partner Viking Venture and board member , Vidar Løken and Sten-Roger Karlsen, respectively CFO and CEO of Ørn Software

Lead investor Viking Venture’s fourth IPO in 9 months – raising in total NOK 3.3 billion to its portfolio companies

Trondheim, 29 March 2021 – More than 1.200 customers benefit from Ørn Software’s solutions for digitization of industry and real estate management. Today, the company goes public on Euronext Growth in Oslo, following a capital increase of NOK 250 million enabling a continuation of the company’s strong M&A track record.

– The IPO is a huge milestone in Ørn Software’s history of strong growth, as the listing on Euronext Growth represents a solid platform on which we can build our growth story further. Over the last few years, we have continued to improve our customer proposition and broaden our geographical footprint. This combination of organic and acquisition-driven growth initiatives has led to an annual recurring revenue that on average has increased 80 % per year in the period 2017-2020, CEO of Ørn Software Sten-Roger Karlsen says. This includes the acquisition of Facilit, which was closed in March 2021.

Karlsen emphasizes that the listing on Euronext Growth in Oslo will enable the company to continue its strong growth. Ørn Software raised NOK 250 million in new equity ahead of the listing, and attracted a range of high-quality investors, including Swedbank Robur, BI Asset Management, Aktia Asset Management, and Tar Heel Capital. Based on the offer price of NOK 10.50 per share, the market capitalization of Ørn Software is NOK 902 million, including the new shares.

– This means that we have an excellent toolbox for continuing to growth both organically and through M&A. With eight acquisitions the last few years, we have demonstrated that Ørn Software is a good home for B2B software companies. We know that we with our methodology can accelerate growth in acquired companies and create more benefit for our customers and increased value for our shareholders, Sten-Roger Karlsen says.

Ørn Software’s largest shareholder since 2017, Viking Venture, has during the last nine months IPO’ed four of its portfolio companies – all B2B software as a service companies with M&A driven growth.

– Euronext Growth has become a tremendous asset for Norwegian companies. It is a very efficient tool for growth stage companies to raise capital. Our four portfolio companies on Euronext Growth have in total raised NOK 3.3 billion during 2020 and 2021, predominantly from international investors, partner Viking Venture and Board Chair of Ørn Software Joar Welde says.

– The Nordics is a leader in Europe when it comes to digitizing all businesses. What we see is that this is driven by two main factors: Firstly, the high cost level incentivizes companies to start using digital tools to streamline their processes. Secondly, we are digital savvy countries, meaning that there is lots of interesting innovation going on in many small and medium sized software companies, many of which have great growth prospects ahead of them, Joar Welde says.

The private placement in Ørn Software received significant attention internationally, and 89 percent of the shares were allocated to non-Norwegian investors, including one of the of the world’s largest fund managers, based in the US.

About Ørn Software

  • Ørn Software is one of the country’s leading software companies within solutions for efficient management, operation, and maintenance in a wide range of industries, such as real estate, industry, and aquaculture
  • The company’s solutions enable customers to better track and control their assets, and help increase capacity utilisation, reduce costs, extend lifetime, reduce energy consumption and, not least, reduce the environmental footprint. Simply put, the solutions help make things work, whether it be a machine park, property, ski lifts or salmon farming equipment
  • Ørn Software currently has almost 1,200 customers, including companies such as Skistar, Bane NOR, Orkla, Entra, and DNB, and over 50 companies in the aquaculture industry. The company has a subscription-based business model
  • Ørn Software moved its head office from Moss to Trondheim in November 2020
  • Ørn Software has an aggressive growth strategy. In the period 2017 to 2020, annual recurring revenue (ARR) has grown an average of 73% per year and now totals NOK 107 million, driven by organic growth and acquisitions. In 2020, the company’s adjusted EBITDA was NOK 39 million (these are pro forma figures that include businesses acquired in 2020)
  • The company had only 3.7% in churn in 2020
  • Ørn Software has succeeded well in the M&A market, with four acquisitions in 2020 alone: Pixelwerk, Avector, MainManager and Entro IT, in addition to Facilit in 2021

About Viking Venture

  • Viking Venture is the leading Nordic active investor in fast-growing business-to-business software scale-ups having invested in more than 30 software companies
  • In the periode July 2021 to March 2021 Viking Venture has done 4 IPOs – Mercell, House of Control, EcoOnline and Ørn Software with a total current market cap of approximately NOK 11 billion