Norwegian AI startup Jenz has secured €540,000 in Pre-Seed funding from Antler and Ada Ventures, alongside a NOK 1 million (€92,000) startup grant from Innovation Norway. The Oslo-based company is building an AI-powered platform that helps retailers automate operational tasks and make better use of fragmented business data. The announcement highlights Jenz's rapid transition from a hackathon winner to a funded company with active retail pilots.
Funding and Company Origins
Jenz was founded by Remi Bjørnestad (CEO), Jo Schou Sandåker (CTO), and Natnael Belete Seifo (CCO). The company won the Norway AI Hackathon in Mandal in June, an event organized by Ada Ventures and Startuplab. Ada Ventures became the first investor, and the founders later moved from Kristiansand to Oslo and joined Antler's residency program.
The broader investment syndicate includes Antler, which invested alongside Ada Ventures in September after the team joined its residency program. Innovation Norway also supported the startup with a NOK 1 million grant, equivalent to approximately €92,000. This combination of private and public funding will help Jenz continue product development, expand its retail partnerships, and prepare for international growth.
AI Agent for Retail Operations
Retailers often manage information across online stores, point-of-sale platforms, inventory systems, accounting tools, and marketing software. Jenz addresses this fragmentation by bringing data from these systems into a single structured layer that its AI agent can access and process. The platform allows retailers to analyze sales and inventory data, forecast demand, evaluate pricing and marketing strategies, and automate routine tasks.
The AI agent can also monitor operations, identify issues that require attention, and notify relevant team members when decisions are needed. According to co-founder and CEO Remi Bjørnestad, many retailers want to use AI but do not know where or how to start, and generic tools often fail because they cannot handle real store data volumes. He emphasized that when AI makes decisions involving real money, it must act on trusted data.
Early Pilot Results
Jenz began onboarding pilot customers in late August, working with both online retailers and businesses operating multiple physical stores. During the pilot period, customers assigned the platform more than 3,000 tasks across over 20 back-office systems. These figures, which are company reported, suggest early demand for a unified AI operations layer.
Some pilot customers reported saving up to 100 hours of work in their first month, while one retailer recorded a 31% increase in team capacity. No customers were named in the announcement. The company says these results demonstrate the platform's ability to reduce manual back-office workload and free employees for higher-value work.
International Expansion Plans
Jenz plans to expand beyond the Nordic region, with a UK launch expected within the next nine months. The startup is part of Antler's residency program and recently pitched at Antler's Demo Day during Oslo Innovation Week. Its founders have global ambitions from day one, according to Ada Ventures, and the company is preparing for that next phase.
Jenz's €540,000 Pre-Seed round and early pilot traction position the startup to address a practical gap in retail AI adoption. By focusing on trusted data and real operational tasks, the company aims to move beyond generic chatbots toward an agent that supports daily decision making. Its planned UK entry will test whether the model can scale outside the Nordics.