The software has now been sold to the French billionaire company Schneider, and has been built into the Vamp tour bus.
Business: Haugesunderne Lars Eirik Støle and Ronny A. Torgersen at LBC cloud have developed software solutions for smart commercial buildings.
But in 2015, the Norwegian head of Schneider Electric contacted Haugesunders with a request to develop an electric vehicle charging program.
Back on the tour bus
They embarked on this, and began the program development process.
Lars Eirik Støle is best known as a keyboardist for FordRekord and Vamp, and spends a lot of time touring.
– The job at Vamp is a full time job, but when we are on tour there is a lot of waiting. Instead of sitting back and watching Netflix in the dead of the night, I programmed instead. Stoll says the first part of the program was written in the back seat of a tour bus.
After a short time, the demand for the software grew rapidly, and the need for a slightly more convenient office space than tour buses and hotel rooms arose. Thus the founders of the Gründerloftet resided in Haugesund.
From there, several developers and designers were hired to meet the need, and the Borettslad platform was created.
Simply put, Borettslad is a platform that ensures the fair distribution of electricity and costs associated with electric vehicle charging stations, for installers, factory owners and electric vehicle drivers.
The platform has quickly gained a foothold across the country, and today it is one of the recommended solutions from the Electric Vehicle Association of Housing Associations.
major international plans
The last time Haugesunds Avis spoke to Støle in Gründerloftet, in 2019, he was able to talk about the big international plans. Then he said the following about the Norwegian and global electric car market:
– When the rest of the world comes, they will look at us in Norway and what we have done. The market will explode.
Maybe he is right.
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Developed locally – with an international sales force
observed in France
After great success domestically, and a good collaboration with Schneider Electric Norway, they noticed the company and software also at Schneider’s head office in Grenoble in the southeast of France.
This led to numerous meetings with the French, who eventually became fully convinced of the Haugesunders.
– We can confirm that we have sold the software to Schneider in France, which will now develop the solution and sell it to a larger market in Europe, says Støle.
Schneider AS states:
– We are pleased to announce that we have acquired EVlink connect, which is operated by Norwegian startup LCB cloud. After working with LBC cloud for five years, we strongly believe that joining forces will be a success that complements the platforms we already have. We plan to continue developing the platform, and gradually expand to other European countries in the future.
Plan from day one
– It’s no secret that this is a big deal. This plan “A” was all the way to the international level. We’ve now made it happen, so we’re very proud.
– FFrom day one, the plan was for our program to reach the international level. At the beginning of programming, for example, we added many different languages and currencies. Støle says it was certainly an impressive goal that the software created in small Haugesund should reach the big world, but we believed in our concept, and worked hard to make it happen.
What will happen next?
– Initially, we will help the global Schneider team develop the software and concept further, after which we will also continue to develop software for commercial buildings, says Haugesunderen.
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