Norsjór was established by freshmen students at the University of Agder attending UiA Shift, a business start-up initiative in the master’s program Entrepreneurship and Innovation.
Norsjór is developing an advanced laser system that can remove shells and seaweed that stick to the hulls of ships. Effective cleansing can reduce a ship’s fuel consumption by 25 to 55 percent.
“Finding start-up capital is the most difficult thing for all entrepreneurs. Now we can seriously focus on developing our product”, says Amalie Eilertsen, one of four employees at Norsjór.
STARTING A BUSINESS
Starting a business is an important part of the master’s degree in entrepreneurship. Stine Øyna, Associate Professor at UiA, is impressed by the students.
“These students have succeeded because they have worked harder than we require them to. They have all been very dedicated to making their companies succeed,” says Øyna.
As Program Manager for UiA Shift, Øyna has followed both Norsjor and Pleco Marine, which also received NOK 1 million from Innovation Norway, from the start.
“Both companies have identified huge opportunities in the market and have proven that they are able to make full use of the resources they have at their disposal. We look forward to following them further and will use them as resources in the master’s education,” says Øyna to uia.no.
The next step for Norsjór will be to purchase what they need to build and test the laser system they will use to clean ship hulls.
