Skyfall Ventures

Investment decisions are driven by the three co-founders: Managing Partner Espen Malmo, Partner Jon Kåre Stene, and Partner Preben Songe-Møller. Investment Manager Cecilie Skjong oversees full deal-flow evaluation, screening roughly 20 startups per week and guiding opportunities to the partner group. There is no indication of an external investment committee or limited partner advisory board dictating decisions.

Skyfall sources from its deep roots in the Norwegian tech ecosystem. Co-founder Jon Kåre Stene was an early Oda executive, co-founder Preben Songe-Møller founded Sprint Consulting and backed Oda early, and Espen Malmo has personally evaluated over 10,000 startups. This network, combined with Cecilie Skjong's background at McKinsey and industrial SaaS firm Aize, generates a funnel centered on Norway but reaching across the Nordics.

Skyfall is structured as a traditional venture capital firm with multiple funds under management, not a single family office. It evolved from an angel network into a formal fund manager. The firm does not disclose its limited partners, but its structure — deploying institutional capital rather than a single-family fortune — is clear from its multi-fund, co-founder model.

Skyfall explicitly seeks to be the first institutional investor on a company's cap table. The firm states it is comfortable investing before product-market fit and sometimes before a product exists, which typically positions it as a lead or co-lead in pre-seed and seed rounds. It does not act as a passive follower in later-stage syndicates.

Skyfall is a generalist firm with a technical bent, but its portfolio reveals heavy emphasis on energy transition, cryptocurrency and blockchain infrastructure, cybersecurity, AI, and enterprise software. Confirmed positions include Enode (energy APIs), Firi (crypto exchange), Cybret AI (autonomous cyber defense), Riff (vibe coding), and Parahelp (AI support). The team's educational backgrounds — Malmo in cyber security and crypto, Skjong in hydropower systems — reinforce these tilts.

Skyfall describes itself as hands-on but not intrusive, with a 'founders lead, we support' ethos. The partners actively help with early hiring, go-to-market strategy, follow-on fundraising, and acting as a sounding board during operational challenges. Stene's scaling experience at Oda and Songe-Møller's consulting background are positioned as direct operational assets for portfolio founders, rather than passive board oversight.

Skyfall's link to Oda, Norway's first unicorn, runs through its partners. Jon Kåre Stene was a founding team member and COO who scaled Oda from zero to 500 employees. Preben Songe-Møller was among Oda's earliest backers and led Skyfall's first investment in the company. This operational and early-stage investing experience forms a core part of Skyfall's identity when pitching founders.