Northzone Invests $5 Million in The Online Backup Norwegian company

In a private placement offering, Northzone Ventures and its partners invested 30.5 MNOK in The Online Backup company AS (OBC).

"The Online Backup company is a very exciting company that we have followed for some time. The company has proved that focused niche thinking within IT services generates very good results in Norway, and we strongly believe that The Online Backup company will be able to compete in the European market," says Tellef Thorleifsson, Co-Founder and Partner in Northzone Ventures.

The Online Backup company AS will expand to several countries in Europe. Sweden and Germany are the first two markets the company will enter. In the context of expansion the company’s Board is strengthened with several members and relevant experience. Tellef Thorleifsson, Partner at Northzone Ventures, Rolf Assev with 12 years of experience as Chief Strategy Officer at Opera Software AS, and Peter Larsson, former CEO of EPiServer, all join the Board.

"This is further assurance for our customers and partners that they have chosen the right solution and a secure service provider," says CEO Alexander Hagerup. "For most businesses today, the IT systems and its associated files and databases, make up most of the value of the company and large costs are incurred with the loss of data and downtime. We make sure our customers are protected against this," adds Hagerup, who is very much looking forward to working in Europe over the next few years.

Morgan Stanley’s research expects the market for cloud services will have an annual growth of 30% to 50% over the next 3 years, whilst IDC expects the global market size of cloud storage will reach six billion dollars in 2013 – an increase of approximately 150% from 2009. (MS May ’11, IDC September ’09)

Based in Oslo,The Online Backup company AS is Norway’s largest provider of Online Backup and Disaster Recovery solutions to private and public businesses. The company was founded by two Norwegian entrepreneurs in 2005 and has since then experienced a total growth of 1,221%. The company’s customer portfolio now includes approximately 4,000 corporate customers, 35 employees and a turnover close to 50 MNOK. In 2011, OBC made it onto Deloitte’s Fast50 Norway and Fast500 EMEA Technology Lists of Europe’s fastest growing technology companies as well as securing the Gaselle award for the second year in a row.