Aker — Capital/Financing Update 2020

Oct 27, 2020

Aker ASA: Cognite partners with Accel for continued growth

Aker ASA: Cognite partners with Accel for continued growth

Aker ASA ("Aker") today announced that Cognite AS ("Cognite"), the global

provider of industrial data management software, has entered a partnership with

Accel, a leading global venture capital firm with deep domain experience and

expertise in building world class software companies.

Cognite's main product, the software platform Cognite Data Fusion (CDF), helps

industries with digital transformation by liberating, safeguarding, and

translating data from sensors, systems, and other sources into one common

language. The data contextualized by CDF empowers companies to drive industrial

applications that increase safety, sustainability, efficiency, and

profitability.

"In just four years, Cognite has assembled a world-class team that has worked

feverishly to create, test and verify the CDF technology. The company has had

expeditious growth and is today attracting leading global customers and rapidly

expanding into new geographies and industries," said Øyvind Eriksen, President

and CEO at Aker and Chairman of Cognite's Board of Directors.  "The timing is

right to bring in a partner that can help scale and further commercialize

Cognite's industrial software platform. We are very pleased to have one of the

world's most successful and experienced technology investors join us on the

Cognite journey, giving us access to invaluable insight, know-how and a proven

track record from the software industry that complements Aker's main realm of

industrial expertise."

The parties will work together to accelerate Cognite's growth initiatives,

including expanding its go-to-market strategy and product development.  Cognite

will be able to leverage Accel's long history of being the first partner in

iconic companies, including Facebook, Slack, Dropbox, Atlassian and UiPath. As

part of the agreement, Accel is gaining a seat on Cognite's Board of Directors.

"Having a partner like Accel join our mission to enable full-scale digital

transformation of industries around the world is a vote of confidence by leading

software experts and a further validation of Cognite's global potential," said

Dr. John Markus Lervik, CEO at Cognite. "Accel's insight and expertise in

scaling best-in-class software companies globally marries perfectly with Aker's

deep industrial knowledge. We look forward to working together with Aker and

Accel to accelerate Cognite's current trajectory to becoming a category-defining

company."

As part of the agreement, Accel will become minority shareholder in Cognite

through a Series A round investment according to conditions to be cleared by

Accel and Cognite jointly. The investment round raises Cognite's valuation to

USD 550 million and marks the first round of external growth financing for the

company.

ABOUT ACCEL:

Accel is a global venture capital firm that is the first partner to exceptional

teams everywhere, from inception through all phases of private company growth.

Atlassian, Braintree, Cloudera, Crowdstrike, DJI, DocuSign, Dropbox, Etsy,

Facebook, Flipkart, Freshworks, Jet, Pillpack, Qualtrics, Slack, Spotify,

Supercell, Tenable, UiPath, and Venmo are among the companies Accel has backed

over the past 35+ years. We help ambitious entrepreneurs build iconic global

businesses. For more, visit www.accel.com or www.twitter.com/accel.

ABOUT COGNITE:

Cognite is a global industrial software-as-a-service (SaaS) company supporting

the full-scale digital transformation of asset-intensive industries around the

world. Their key product, Cognite Data Fusion (CDF), empowers companies with

contextualized OT/IT data to drive industrial applications that increase safety,

sustainability, and efficiency, and drive revenue. For more, visit

www.cognite.com/en

- ENDS -

For more information, please contact:

Christina Chappell Glenn, Head of Investor Relations, Aker ASA

Tel: +47 90532774

Email: christina.glenn@akerasa.com

Atle Kigen, Head of Corporate Communications, Aker ASA

Tel: +47 90784878

Email: atle.kigen@akerasa.com

This information is subject of the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5

-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.