About us

Alginor ASA is a Norwegian marine biotech company developing a fully transparent, traceable and integrated value chain for commercial harvesting and biorefining of Laminaria hyperborea for production of kelp-based ingredients for pharmaceutical and nutraceutical applications.

A brief introduction to Alginor

Alginor was founded in 2014 with an aim to establish Europe’s first biorefinery for marine resources. Today, we focus solely on the brown macroalga Laminaria hyperborea, which is found in abundance in the North Atlantic. We are headquartered in Haugesund, Norway. Our production facilities are located on Husøy near Avaldsnes, Norway, in close proximity to the marine kelp forests.

We are developing sustainable and scalable harvesting and biorefining methods for production of kelp-based ingredients for pharmaceutical and nutraceutical applications. Our objective is to achieve total utilisation of the kelp downstream and become a leading, large-scale manufacturer and supplier of high-quality and unique kelp-based ingredients to a global customer base consisting mainly of end-user production companies spread over several established market segments.

Alginor’s choice of raw material, Laminaria hyperborea, is self-renewable and has a proven track record for industrial exploitation and offers unique selling points compared to other kelp species resulting as a result of its natural habitat in cold and harsh waters. Laminaria hyperborea has a standing biomass of 100 million tonnes in the North Atlantic, whereof 60 million tonnes grow along the Norwegian coastline. Approximately 4 million tonnes (equal to about 4% of the total biomass) are on average available for regulated commercial harvesting each year.

Key facts

50+ employees
500+ shareholders
Locations: Haugesund, Avaldsnes, Oslo
Public funding: MNOK 105.2 (2014–2023)
Primary funding bodies: EU (Horizon 2020), The Research Council of Norway, Innovation Norway, Eurostars, SkatteFUNN
Head Office: Haugesund, Norway. Tel. +47 52 70 73 10

Reports & presentations

Who we are

A Norwegian marine biotech company registered under the laws of Norway
Core values: Exploring, inventive, transparent, sustainable, industrious, collaborative
Objective and purpose: High value-creation through sound resource exploitation with minimal environmental impact and zero squander
Impact: Shift the paradigm in marine resource exploitation

Åpenhetsloven (The Transparency Act)

Alginor has prepared a statement regarding The Transparency Act (Åpenhetsloven) (Norwegian only).

Vision & strategy

Alginor’s long-term goal is to be a large-scale manufacturer and supplier of high-quality and unique ingredients extracted from Laminaria hyperborea to a global customer base consisting mainly of end-user production companies spread over seven established market segments.

The core of Alginor’s business model is sustainable, industrial scale harvesting and biorefining of the brown macroalga Laminaria hyperborea. Alginor’s strategy is to establish an integrated value chain where it controls every link. The raw material will be sourced and processed into starting materials (upstream) by the Company’s wholly owned subsidiary, Hypomar AS, using Hypomar harvesting vessels, whereas downstream processing, including documentation, quality control and biorefining of ingredients will be controlled by the Company through its wholly owned subsidiaries, Alginor Biorefinery AS and Oewa AS. The Company’s primary revenue model in the short to mid-term will be direct business-to-business sales conducted by Alginor. By controlling every link of the value chain, Alginor can ensure reliable and complete traceability for its ingredients, which is highly valued by customers in the high and mid-end market segments. Alginor’s future product offerings can be used in a variety of end-user applications and products in high-end, mid-end and low-end global markets.

Corporate structure

Alginor’s business is structured in a classical group structure to secure operational focus. The group consists of five different legal entities (all registered in Norway), each serving a specific purpose in achieving value-chain integration within the Alginor group. The division into separate legal entities is strongly connected to the different nature of the economic activities within each entity. Alginor believes this is advantageous in order to secure specific focus for each link.

Alginor ASA functions as a regular holding company, holding full ownership in all underlying entities. The holding company is, among other things, responsible for overseeing the group’s performance, financing, capital allocation and liquidity control. Moreover, the holding company is intended as an object for equity capital financing and public listing.