Aker ASA: Cognite partners with Accel for continued growth

OSLO, Norway, Oct. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Aker ASA ("Aker") today announced that Cognite AS ("Cognite"), the global provider of industrial data management software, has entered a partnership with Accel, a leading global venture capital firm with deep domain experience and expertise in building world class software companies.

Cognite's main product, the software platform Cognite Data Fusion (CDF), helps industries with digital transformation by liberating, safeguarding, and translating data from sensors, systems, and other sources into one common language. The data contextualized by CDF empowers companies to drive industrial applications that increase safety, sustainability, efficiency, and profitability.

"In just four years, Cognite has assembled a world-class team that has worked feverishly to create, test and verify the CDF technology. The company has had expeditious growth and is today attracting leading global customers and rapidly expanding into new geographies and industries," said Øyvind Eriksen, President and CEO at Aker and Chairman of Cognite's Board of Directors.  "The timing is right to bring in a partner that can help scale and further commercialize Cognite's industrial software platform. We are very pleased to have one of the world's most successful and experienced technology investors join us on the Cognite journey, giving us access to invaluable insight, know-how and a proven track record from the software industry that complements Aker's main realm of industrial expertise."

The parties will work together to accelerate Cognite's growth initiatives, including expanding its go-to-market strategy and product development.  Cognite will be able to leverage Accel's long history of being the first partner in iconic companies, including Facebook, Slack, Dropbox, Atlassian and UiPath. As part of the agreement, Accel is gaining a seat on Cognite's Board of Directors.

"Having a partner like Accel join our mission to enable full-scale digital transformation of industries around the world is a vote of confidence by leading software experts and a further validation of Cognite's global potential," said Dr. John Markus Lervik, CEO at Cognite. "Accel's insight and expertise in scaling best-in-class software companies globally marries perfectly with Aker's deep industrial knowledge. We look forward to working together with Aker and Accel to accelerate Cognite's current trajectory to becoming a category-defining company."

As part of the agreement, Accel will become minority shareholder in Cognite through a Series A round investment according to conditions to be cleared by Accel and Cognite jointly. The investment round raises Cognite's valuation to USD 550 million and marks the first round of external growth financing for the company.  

ABOUT ACCEL:

Accel is a global venture capital firm that is the first partner to exceptional teams everywhere, from inception through all phases of private company growth. Atlassian, Braintree, Cloudera, Crowdstrike, DJI, DocuSign, Dropbox, Etsy, Facebook, Flipkart, Freshworks, Jet, Pillpack, Qualtrics, Slack, Spotify, Supercell, Tenable, UiPath, and Venmo are among the companies Accel has backed over the past 35+ years. We help ambitious entrepreneurs build iconic global businesses. For more, visit www.accel.com or www.twitter.com/accel.

ABOUT COGNITE:

Cognite is a global industrial software-as-a-service (SaaS) company supporting the full-scale digital transformation of asset-intensive industries around the world. Their key product, Cognite Data Fusion (CDF), empowers companies with contextualized OT/IT data to drive industrial applications that increase safety, sustainability, and efficiency, and drive revenue. For more, visit www.cognite.com/en

For more information, please contact:

Christina Chappell Glenn, Head of Investor Relations, Aker ASA
Tel: +47 90532774
Email: christina.glenn@akerasa.com

Atle Kigen, Head of Corporate Communications, Aker ASA
Tel: +47 90784878
Email: atle.kigen@akerasa.com

This information is subject of the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.

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