DSD enters new market niche with significant investment in technology firm KVS Technologies
The family-owned, Stavanger-based investment company DSD announces that it has become a co-owner of KVS Technologies, which is raising capital to execute its ambitious growth plans.
DSD visiting KVS Technologies' offices at Sandnes, Norway. Here from the left; Group Leader Ingvald Løyning of DSD, Chairman Arild Austigard of KVS Technologies, and Kjartan Melberg, Chief Investment Officer, DSD.
‘We are very thankful for the opportunity to be a co-owner in this exciting scale-up company. KVS Technologies provides environmentally-friendly, safe, and innovative data collection and analysis services to customers in both the private and the public sector, says Kjartan Melberg, DSD’s Chief Investment Officer.
‘We are delighted that the highly-reputable investment company DSD is joining us on our journey. The DSD team has impressed us with the way they’ve familiarized themselves with our company, our technology, and the market we operate within. We believe DSD is the best new owner to join our team now as we’re scaling our geodata collection and analysis services in Europe and the US,’ says Cato Vevatne, CEO of KVS Technologies.
In recent years, DSD has concentrated its investments in four business areas: mobility, maritime and marine, tourism, and healthcare. Sustainability and digitalisation are the cornerstones of these investments.
‘Our history within the transport and mobility industry goes way back to 1855, and we’ve always had a significant ownership in shipping and transport companies, both on land and on water. Today’s investment in drone technology and geodata services represents our foray into aviation – a new kind of infrastructure and mobility for our portfolio. It’s impressive that although KVS Technologies is a young company, it has succeeded in replacing expensive, traditional inspection methods with newer, more sustainable technology,’ says Kjartan Melberg.
Cato Vevatne, CEO at KVS Technologies.
Kjartan Melberg, Chief Investment Officer of DSD.
Raising capital for acquisitions and expected demand growth
KVS Technologies is an end-to-end supplier of unmanned inspection services, allowing for the digitalisation of critical infrastructure. The company recently announced the acquisition of Terratec Group, Europe’s largest supplier of geodata services. The new organisation will have close to 300 employees. The capital raise will go towards financing the acquisition of Terratec Group, as well as scaling the company, specifically for growth in the US.
‘The majority of the capital raise is tied to our acquisition of Terratec, and the merging of our companies is central in our growth strategy. Together we will have an even stronger and more complete product offering, and this will lead to significant growth in the markets where we already have leading positions. From 2022 we will be providing customers in Europe and the US with digital twins and advanced mapping services, which involves vast amounts of data,’ says Cato Vevatne.
‘KVS Technologies is an extremely interesting company as its technology leads to greener solutions for the future. One example can be seen in the power grid inspections that utility companies are required to carry out annually. Traditionally they have used helicopters for this purpose. But more and more utility companies are now switching to drones, which does the same job in a smarter and more environmentally-friendly way. We believe we’ve just seen the start of this development, and there is a large untapped potential for KVS Technologies within the areas of infrastructure, construction, and environmental services, both nationally and internationally,’ says Kjartan Melberg.
"We believe we’ve just seen the start of this development, and there is a large untapped potential for KVS Technologies within the areas of infrastructure, construction, and environmental services, both nationally and internationally," says Kjartan Melberg, Chief Investment Officer of DSD.
About KVS Technologies
KVS Technologies and Terratec merged in October 2021 to form a global leader in digital reality services. By combining software, sensors, and autonomous technologies, we put data to work to boost efficiency and reliability within the infrastructure, construction, environment, and public sectors. Driven by the need to build and maintain the world’s infrastructure in a sustainable way, we empower modern society by transforming data into insights and living digital twins. The group has 280 employees in five countries, and net sales of approximately 280 million NOK. Learn more at kvstech.no and terratec.no
About DSD
DSD AS is a family-owned investment company owned by the Hermansen family. The company has its origins and headquarters in Stavanger, Norway, and DSD has been a proud owner of companies in freight transport, passenger services and international shipping since 1855. DSD aims to be a driving force for sustainable development and focuses on ownership in companies within maritime and marine, mobility, tourism and health services. The DSD Group currently owns companies with almost 5,000 employees in total.
