John Markus Lervik set up Fast Search and Transfer before starting Cognite in 2016 with Kjell Inge Røkke's Aker industrial group.
Cognite specializes in solutions related to industrial digitalization, and through its data platform Cognite Data Fusion, the company helps everything from oil rigs to power plants and industry to monitor, analyze and improve their operations. Last year, the company also launched its generative AI tool to increase productivity.
However, in 2022 the company lost approximately NOK 500 million, in 2021 it lost approximately NOK 400 million and in 2020 more than NOK 150 million.
Now co-founder and chief strategy officer John Markus Lervik says the company expects to have positive cash flow next year.
– It will be cash flow positive in 2024… Our goal from the beginning was to build the world's leading industrial software company and list it on the stock exchange in the USA, said Lervik in an interview with Reuters During the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Want to go on the stock market?
The timing of the IPO depends on Cognite's listing readiness and on the financial markets. He added that this could happen “in the next few years,” perhaps in 2025.
The company, majority owned by Kjell Inge Røkkes Aker, has attracted investments from companies such as Accel, TCV and Saudi Aramco since its inception in 2016.
In 2022, Saudi Aramco, the world's largest oil company, bought a 7.4 percent stake in Cognit through its subsidiary Aramco Overseas Company BV, valuing the Norwegian company at about $1.6 billion.
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