Stockholm (NordSIP) – This week, the Norwegian Advisory Board (NorNAB) for Impact Investing announced that Jonas Skattum Svegaarden, CEO and co-founder of Norwegian venture capital incubator Katapult, was joing the board as Vice Chair.
Svegaarden will work side by side with the other members of the board: Norselab’s Maria Grimstad de Perlinghi, Chairperson Espen Daae and Marte Løfman from Ferd, Norfund’s Signe Kolbye Sørensen, Grieg Investor’s Lars Erik Mangset, and Nysnø’s Solveig Emile Espedal Sundsdal.
On this occasion, NordSIP reached out to Svegaarden to get a better sense of the organisation and his role in it.
Norwegian Advisory Board for Impact Investing and its Appeal
NorNAB is an independent and membership-driven organization that works for the growth and development of the impact investment ecosystem in Norway. Its members include organisations seeking capital, those providing it, and those helping to make these deals happen to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
“At Katapult and Katapult Foundation, we work towards a future where all investors have an impact investing strategy. We believe the only way to achieve this is to join forces with like-minded organizations and create a platform to accelerate this. NorNAB is a platform where we can share experiences, discuss, solve industry challenges and provide tools to members to make it easier for non-impact investors to become impact investors,” Svegaarden tells NordSIP.
“The board is a very competent, high performing and diverse group of impact investing professionals that do not need too much oversight. We have all contributed in various ways to building NorNAB so far. I do not expect this to change going forward. I am humbled to have their support as the vice chair and amprepared to roll up my sleeves extra high to make NorNAB a success,” Svegaarden adds.
The Road Ahead
Going forward, the plan is to growth NorNAB and expand management to increase its the organisation’s knowledge base. “We have crossed some big milestones already, including the launch of NorNAB with a diverse group of 22 high-quality members (and more to come), the soft launch of our state of the impact investing in Norway and a firm plan for hiring a managing director,” Svegaarden explains.
“We will increase the understanding and knowledge about impact investments, increase the conditions, share experiences and develop a best practice for impact investing.
We plan to join the 33 other member countries plus the EU in the GSG – The Global Steering Group for Impact Investments in a few weeks time,” Svegaarden continues
“I hope that we can reach 50 members within the next AGM in May 2024. We will increase the understanding and knowledge about impact investments, increase the conditions, share experiences and develop a best practice for impact investing. We plan to join the 33 other member countries plus the EU in the GSG – The Global Steering Group for Impact Investments in a few weeks time,” Svegaarden says.
“In the long term, I hope that many of my old colleagues and friends form the financial institutions, pension funds and asset managers will join us and actively seek to make a positive impact with their assets,” Svegaarden concludes.
