Alva Industries raises €16M to scale ultra-compact electric motors

Alva Industries has secured €16 million in new funding to ramp up production of its ultra-compact electric motors, the Trondheim-based deep-tech firm confirmed on 2 July.

The investment round is spearheaded by Nysnø Climate Investments, Sandwater, and Emerald Technology Ventures, with the latter investing through the Nabtesco Technology Ventures fund. Existing supporters Statkraft Ventures and EnvisionTech also joined the round. Meanwhile, Samsung Ventures, which placed a multi-million euro stake in Alva in December 2025 via its SVIC 47 New Technology Investment Partnership, has converted that investment into equity as part of this financing.

What sets Alva apart is its FiberPrinting technology, a patented manufacturing process that weaves conductive fibers directly into a motor’s stator, bypassing the traditional method of winding copper wire around a heavy iron core. The result, the company explains, is an ironless, slotless motor that is significantly lighter than conventional designs. It avoids the low-speed jerky resistance known as cogging and delivers unusually high torque within a compact footprint.

These characteristics are precisely what engineers need when designing actuators for robotic hands, drone gimbals, or surgical tools,a challenge that is especially pressing for developers of humanoid robots. Alva reports that it currently has hundreds of active customer projects spanning both commercial and defense sectors, with growing adoption among original equipment manufacturers in robotics, aerospace, and medical devices.

Founded in 2017 by Jørgen P. Selnes, Sybolt L. Visser, and Knut K. Nielsen, Alva has previously collaborated with industry giants like Lockheed Martin and Boeing. The company raised $11 million (NOK 117 million) in a 2023 Series A led by NRP Zero and Statkraft Ventures to scale into the industrial drone market. Oliver Skisland now serves as chief executive.

“Alva is on a mission to power a new generation of machines that are stronger, lighter, safer, and more reliable,” Skisland stated in the announcement. “This investment gives us the capacity to accelerate our technology roadmap, expand production, and strengthen our position as a global supplier of high-performance electric motors.”

The new capital will be directed toward expanding manufacturing capacity, advancing the product line, and supporting international growth, the company said. Production is currently based in Norway, and Alva plans to significantly increase output to meet what it describes as accelerating demand across robotics, aerospace, medical devices, and defense.

Investors framed the deal in bold category terms. Morten E. Iversen, partner at Sandwater, noted that Alva “has the potential to become a category-defining company within high-performance electric motors.” Siri Kalvig, chief executive of Nysnø, highlighted the company’s ability “to build globally competitive industrial technology from Norway.”

Hiroshi Nerima, president and chief executive of Nabtesco Technology Ventures, said the FiberPrinting platform has “broad potential across robotics, automation, medical, aerospace, and other advanced industrial applications,” and hinted at possible collaboration with Nabtesco Group’s OVALO on compact actuator systems.

This round arrives during a broader surge in funding for European hardware and deep-tech ventures, from data-center infrastructure to dedicated early-stage funds built specifically to support such innovations. Nysnø is a recurring player in this pipeline, as is the wider network of Nordic funds, including NordicNinja, which have built portfolios around the region’s climate and deep-tech founders.

What the announcement does not disclose is a post-money valuation or a breakdown of how the €16 million is split between the new lead investors and the existing backers who participated. Alva also has not shared unit economics for its motors or a timeline for reaching the higher-volume production levels the funding is intended to support.

For now, the company’s claims about torque density and cogging-free performance rely on its own technical materials rather than independent lab benchmarking. Still, Alva’s bet is clear: the same properties that make its motors attractive to robotics OEMs today,low weight, high torque density, and tight tolerances,will only become more critical as humanoid robots, surgical robots, and small satellites all compete for limited space inside actuator housings.