Special focus on Norway South and East region
In order to achieve growth in a region, it is important to “put the money into work” closest possible to where the values should be created. TISTA Invest has a special eye on growth businesses with operation in this region. South of Norway is known for decades of industry, where larger company Borregård, Hafslund, Petterson, Nidar, Brynhild, Stabburet, Fresenius Kabi, Nexans and Norske Skog has important operations. With strategic geographic boarder to the EU and Sweden, as well as access to 6,000 students annually examined from Østfold University College, we believe that the region has particularly good advantage in the ICT market.
Who we are
Tom Solberg (Partner and Investment Manager) has 35 years of management experience from the globally leading tech companies Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia. Tom has 20 years of experience also from board positions in listed and unlisted companies. Tom founded the company NetNordic in 2001, currently an international “hundred million US dollar” company providing networks, security and broadband solutions to operators and large enterprises in the Nordics. Within NetNordic Tom has been a central part of totally 8 acquisitions and 5 new daughter companies under the NetNordic group umbrella. Already at the age of 10, Tom learned the importance of good trade, sale and customer treatment working at his Parents petrol Station in Halden from 1970 to 1981. Tom holds a Bachelor of Electronics from Østfold University Collage and a Bachelor from Norwegian Business School (BI).
Our values – CIP:
Commitment – One of our competitive advantages is long industrial experience combined with creativity, versatility and execution. In sum this means job satisfaction and engagement.
Integrity – We have zero tolerance for all kinds of immoral behavior, and always having the highest ethical standards and integrity, both internally, toward our clients and in our investments.
Profitability – It would of course be nice not to have the pressure of thinking about profit in a growth phase, but a regular return on investment is long term building the confidence and opportunities both for our clients, shareholders and the society in general.
The name TISTA
It is with humility and pride we seek to associate our company name and vision with Tista, an idyllic river located in Halden, in the south of Norway. Tista represests substance, energy, joy and creativity. and water as the symbol of growth.
As is the case with many other rivers around the world, Tista river is representative for Norwegian industry as it was once the foundation of industrial growth in general and people from Halden specially, centuries of history and the foundation for growth. TISTA is a 5 km (3,1 miles) long river flowing from [Femsjøen] east of Halden, via the village [Tistedalen] and flows out in Iddefjorden, a fjord between Norway and Sweden. TISTA has a central place in the history of Halden and represents hundreds of years of foundation of creativity, energy, economic development and growth. TISTA with its waterfalls and 229 feet height difference, made a crucial contribution to create jobs for the hundreds, and later thousands, of families who chose to settle in the Halden region.
TISTA formed in 1815 the basis for energy to the “Bomuldspinneriet” (Cutton spinning) in Tistedal, declared as Norway’s first mechanical manufacturing industry. Bomuldspinneriet was founded by the industrialist Mads Wiel. Later, TISTA also became an important part of “Soot Canal” that in the period 1859 to 1930 were used for timber floating to Saugbrugs, a large paper production plant, and thus a very important part of the process for the many years was the largest industry in Halden, today part of the company [Norske Skog].
TISTA also split Halden in what is called the “North Side” and “South Side”. TISTA is the end of the 149,5 km (93 miles) long [Haldenvassdraget] and the Halden Canal, which also includes Brekke Gate which with its 26.6 meters (87 feet) is the highest gate in Scandinavia. TISTA ends in [Iddefjorden], a fjord floating from Berby in South to Halden in the North, and forms much of the border between Norway and Sweden, a fjord which again ends in Ringdalsfjord, a side fjord to the [Oslofjorden], with the Hvaler Islands in the West and the Swedish Bohuslän Coast in south.