CBS forms collaboration with Nordic Alpha Partners to strengthen Danish HardTech companies

The Danes are excellent entrepreneurs and know how to bring great ideas and solutions to the table. However, in this country and abroad, investors are used to look towards Silicon Valley and fast-growing tech companies with apps or software without a physical product.

This poses a challenge because we need physical solutions to accelerate the green transition at the pace that is needed. We need a new approach for investment and scaling of the so-called HardTech companies, e.g. factories manufacturing green products, new advanced transformative technologies or recycling materials.

The HardTech industry needs a different investment approach in the early growth phase, as they are far more heavy, expensive and complex to scale. As a result, Nordic Alpha Partners, a growth foundation focusing on HardTech companies, has joined forces with Copenhagen Business School and the student association CBS Climate Club to address this challenge.

“There are market as well as regulation challenges in relation to scaling HardTechs, which is why we have developed models and investment methods to identify and drive high growth based on the free play of the market forces, so-called Economic Sustainability. We look forward to sharing our experience and models with academia and the next generation of CEOs to analyse the problems and solve them together,” says Laurits Bach Sørensen, Co-founder and Partner in Nordic Alpha Partners.

One of the HardTechs from Nordic Alpha Partners’ investment portfolio is the fast-growing Danish company Re-Match, which reuses artificial turf, and Wiferion, which facilitates wireless charging of industrial robots.

Need for a large-scale collaboration

This new partnership will introduce different activities in addition to keeping an ongoing dialogue between the three partners. For instance, events will be planned, and a deep understanding of the extent of the problem and solution models will be created.

“I really look forward to this collaboration. Nordic Alpha Partners is addressing a neglected issue in terms of creating the necessary growth from sustainable HardTech start-ups, and they are really hitting the nail right on the head. I know that the students are eager to make a difference in this area,” says Hanne Harmsen, Vice Dean for Green Transition at CBS.

Malte Werner agrees. He is President of CBS Climate Club, of which the aim is to involve students in integrating sustainability in their personal as well as their professional life:

”In the CBS Climate Club we work actively to use CBS, the students and the surrounding network to find solutions to the climate crisis. We hope this will lead to the development of one or more new economic philosophies to help politicians and business leaders to deliver on green transition. Today, we are taking a step in that direction,” says Malte Werner.