Former Mowi chief Aarskog joins electric boat company
Former Mowi chief executive Alf-Helge Aarskog is back in business as a director of Norwegian electric boat builder Evoy AS.
Aarskog left Mowi in November after almost a decade at the helm of the world’s biggest Atlantic salmon farmer.
He has now invested in Evoy, based in Florø, a coastal town halfway between Bergen and Ålesund, and joined the company’s board.
Fast-moving
Evoy has received a lot of attention for its fast-moving electric boat venture and is now expanding its portfolio to turnkey battery-powered outboards.
The company’s vision is to eliminate emissions from boats. This year, Evoy is focusing on boats between 20 to 40 feet with an inboard engine, designed for professional use.
It will introduce an outboard engine next year and will move into the leisure market with new products under development for leisure boats.
In a press release on the company’s website, Aarskog said as well as a belief in a good return on his investment, he chose to put money into Evoy because the opportunity to build a new green industry was important to him.
He said he had great faith in Evoy’s concept and management, as well as the opportunities electric boats open for the aquaculture industry and other industries with a focus on sustainable operations in the sea.
“Time is precious in farming. Reduced time and cost of maintenance and, not least, the logistics of getting fuel out to all the hundreds of sites in farming in Norway will make Evoy’s solutions highly sought after,” said Aarskog.
“Norway needs to build new sustainable industries and Evoy AS’s concept involves jobs along the entire coast. I think it’s great that Evoy is investing in building its main base locally in Florø in Kinn Municipality.”
Invaluable expertise
Evoy raised NOK 8.5 million in a private placement in December last year. The five investors were the Lundin Foundation, Planet 9 Ventures, Link VC, Greenstat and Presttun AS.
“We are humbled and very pleased that Alf-Helge has now decided to contribute to Evoy’s further journey, both with capital and expertise. The latter is absolutely invaluable both for the phase that we are in now, but also for the rapid international growth that we are going to have in the coming years,” said Evoy chief executive and co-founder Leif A Stavøstrand.
