From Startup to Global leader: Signicat’s growth to $100 million

In the digital identity and cybersecurity market, few stories are as compelling as the one of Norwegian start-up Signicat. What began as a bold idea in Trondheim, Norway almost two decades ago — a small startup in a niche market has transformed into a global leader within the digital identity market, with annual recurring revenues (ARR) above $100 million. As early lead investors in Signicat, we reflect on how an exceptional team, a clear vision, and a dash of boldness turned a small idea into a giant success.

Header image: Joar Welde & Jostein Vik, Partners at Viking Venture

The Beginning: Perfect match from the get-go

In 2008, Signicat reached out to us in Viking Venture as in any other regular case. The team was experienced, talented and had a unique understanding of identity management. Signicat originated as a spinoff from Kantega, with technical and commercial resources dedicated to focus exclusively on the Norwegian digital identity solution BankID. While other investors doubted the market potential of a niche product in a small country, we saw an opportunity to be an aggregator within the space. It was bold, but we felt convinced the team had what it took to succeed. Also, we had just sold our portfolio company Maxware, a digital identity provider, to global ERP giant SAP. Our experience with MaxWare made us confident we could make this a success, and we felt it was a perfect match from the start.

The Uniqueness of the Team

What set Signicat apart wasn’t just the technology—it was the people. The team combined technical brilliance with sharp commercial instincts. From Arne Vidar Haug, a commercial powerhouse, to Gunnar Nordset, a technical visionary, and Sigurd Stendal, a commercial CTO and their colleagues, each member brought something exceptional to the table. This diversity of skills and backgrounds was key to their success. They had a unique understanding of the market, which they used to their advantage, seizing every opportunity they saw.

A pioneer in the digital signing market

Looking back, Signicat was truly a pioneer in the digital transformation of signing and identification processes. At the time, BankID wasn’t widely used, and digital signatures weren’t even legally permitted. Board documents had to be signed on paper during in-person meetings. Every agreement at a bank required a handwritten signature, and you had to show up physically to verify your identity.

By digitizing this cumbersome process, Signicat delivered immense value and unlocked significant cost savings for its customers. Take the Norwegian postal services, Posten, for example; they used to incur an internal cost of 35–45 EUR to process a single address change. Signicat’s solution dramatically slashed that cost to just 2.50 EUR.

How was this possible? Surprisingly, it wasn’t about having the most advanced technology. What set Signicat apart was their deep understanding of the market and their ability to spot opportunities others simply couldn’t see.

“The SaaS company on steroids”

Since our partnership started, Signicat consistently grew 40–50% annually during its first decade. In recent years, the growth has been steady at 15–20%, which is a natural development given the company’s current size. Their entire revenue model was brilliantly structured for growth. Customers could start at a relatively low cost, but the business model was designed to scale as customers increased their product usage.

The market was red-hot, and customers were pouring in. At times, sales felt like drinking from a firehose—there were so many customers coming in that the team struggled to deliver to everyone. We had to closely monitor committed ARR against ARR in production to keep things on track. At one point, people started to describe Signicat as “the SaaS company on steroids.”

A success story far beyond our expectation

In honesty — this case has far exceeded the expectations of our initial investment analysis, and there are several reasons for this.

Firstly, Signicat continually discovered new revenue streams that opened upsell opportunities within the steadily growing customer base. Services like signature storage and expanding into new verticals within the same customer. For instance, Signicat could expand its solutions for a bank customer from onboarding a customer to wealth management, car loans, credit cards, and more.

Second, the transaction volume turned out to be much larger than we had anticipated. We could initially set the prices based on customers handling a few million transactions. However, as volumes skyrocketed far beyond those estimates, it worked heavily in Signicat’s favour, driving even greater returns. It is an organic growth where your success is the customer’s success.

From Startup to Global leader

Our investment in Signicat has undoubtedly been a standout success story for Viking Venture. As investors, our primary role has been to support their growth journey with capital, knowledge, coaching and access to our network. Signicat is a unique company that has evolved from a small Norwegian startup with $600 000 USD to a Global leader with over $100 million in revenues.

Norway was an early adopter of BankID, and Signicat quickly carved out a niche as a specialist in this field. They cracked the code on their go-to-market (GTM) strategy early on, backed by a highly complementary and talented team. A team where many of the original management still have an important role in the company today. This case has opened our eyes to never underestimate founders who know their market inside and out—being true experts in their segment.

Additionally, Signicat offered a service that solved an obvious and pressing need. It isn’t a “nice-to-have” solution; it is a critical, “need-to-have” product for their customers—an essential factor for any B2B SaaS business aiming for long-term success.

Working with the management team at Signicat has been nothing short of fantastic. While we’re no longer actively involved in steering the ship alongside them, we’re delighted to remain invested in this exceptional company.