RunwayVC hits €40M first close for Fund II to back industrial AI and robotics
Tech Funding News Sofia Chesnokova ● Covered by 2 sources
RunwayVC just closed its second fund at €40M, and this time outside investors are in. It’s betting on industrial AI, robotics and autonomy, with Halliburton and others now on the cap table.
Based on reporting by Tech Funding News, Sofia Chesnokova — read the original for the full story.
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RunwayVC, the Oslo fund once called RunwayFBU, has finished a first close of €40 million for its second fund. The money will go into pre-seed and Series A companies working on industrial AI, software, robotics, automation and autonomous systems. Its first two Fund II bets are Minerva, which is building humanoid robots, and HIVE, which sells autonomy technology.
That second fund marks a real change in how the firm is financed. RunwayVC was founded in 2021 by Tor Bækkelund and Kjell Inge Røkke, the billionaire chairman of Aker, and Aker was the only backer when the firm launched with 300 million Norwegian kroner. Now the list is broader: Halliburton, Aker BP, Aker Solutions, KLP, Investinor and several Norwegian industrial families have joined in, while Aker remains the main investor.
Bækkelund says the firm always meant to bring in other limited partners, but starting with one backer let it move faster. He also says Fund I did the hard work of proving the model. Since 2022, RunwayVC says it has made 24 investments through Fund I, 23 follow-on investments and two exits, and the portfolio companies have raised more than two billion kroner from outside investors.
The structure is plain enough: a five-person investment team writes first checks of €500,000 to €1 million, then arranges follow-on funding separately. About 70% of the money goes into Norway and the Nordics, with the rest spread across Europe, including WSense and Telgea. RunwayVC expects Fund II to back around 20 companies over three to five years.
What makes the firm unusual is that several of its limited partners can also become customers of the startups. Halliburton’s Jeff Miller says the appeal is AI, automation and software for high-demand environments. Aker’s Øyvind Eriksen frames it as a way to connect venture capital with Norwegian industry, and RunwayVC clearly wants to sit in that overlap rather than chase consumer-style startup glamour.
My take — AI-written commentary, not fact-checked reporting
This is the kind of venture model that sounds boring until it works, which is exactly why it matters. Corporate LPs can be useful customers, but they can also turn a fund into a very polite clubhouse with a shortlist. Europe keeps saying it wants industrial AI sovereignty; this is what that looks like when the paperwork is finally signed.
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