Why we built FundingDB

29 August 2025

Shifter has written about an irritation that has smouldered for years. Norway’s public funding system is so hard to navigate that a whole industry of consultants has grown up around writing the applications. Money meant for research and development inside companies ends up with intermediaries. Read the article at Shifter (in Norwegian).

FundingDB is one of the tools the article covers, and it is ours. We built it because we saw the same problem from the inside, as CFOs for technology companies. The first hurdle is not writing a good application. It is finding out which schemes exist, who they are for, and when the deadlines fall. FundingDB gathers more than 700 public funding schemes from the Research Council of Norway, Innovation Norway and others in one place, so founders and researchers can see what they can actually apply for.

The aim is simple. More of the money should reach the companies meant to use it, and less should go to the intermediaries. What we have built is a small plaster on a large wound, as we told Shifter. But it is somewhere to begin.

Want to try FundingDB, or need help with soft funding? Get in touch.