Bringing food-tech to the table
Eating your greens should be fun! We want to spice up your life by being a force of flavor, variety, crunch, color and quality – an all-around positive experience.
ONNA is on a mission to build a more sustainable and transparent food system by enabling and challenging consumers to make smarter, non-compromising food choices.
Welcome to the salad revolution.
We are farmers. We produce the greenest, crunchiest, flavorfullest, cleanest and freshest salads and herbs out there. We produce greens that make you smile. And think.
We use world-leading vertical hydroponics technology (we know, bold stuff) to create the optimal growing environment for leafy greens. Temperature, light spectrum, CO2, humidity - you name it, we’ve got it covered. Although ONNA is mighty proud of our technical capabilities and we could go on about vertical farming and hydroponics for days, we really consider ourselves to be in the business of enabling and challenging you (the consumer) to make healthier and smarter food choices. As such, our technology is not the hero in this story, YOU ARE!
Collective effort (dugnadsånd) is essential to our ethos - it’s why we chose to name ourselves after the farming tradition “onna”.
Eating your greens should be fun! We want to spice up your life by being a force of flavor, variety, crunch, color and quality – an all-around positive experience.
Our products will always be locally produced. By minimizing the journey from our harvest to your belly, we ensure a higher quality and safer product – because who ever enjoyed an old and soggy lettuce?
Our greens have never touched soil or toxic chemicals – only water, light and nutrients. Also, we run a tight ship and a lean operation. Waste is stupid, so we will bust our own balls to make sure we deal with inputs and outputs as smartly as possible. And for your sake, we won’t keep any secrets.
We have our eyes set on a greener, non-compromising future. This pioneering attitude defines us, why we do what we do, and how we do it.
The world's food systems produce massive negative externalities (aka hidden costs and consequences). These externalities represent health, environmental and economic costs. In other words; value destruction. That’s no bueno. Also, we’re not on board with the endless trade-offs consumers have to make in the veggie aisle. Why are quality, nutrition, sustainability, price and quantity rarely all on the same page?
ONNA believes that this reinforcing system of negative externalities and consumer compromises is ripe for disruption. We are dedicated to providing an alternative for food production that is better and fairer for all of us – enabling people to make healthier and safer food choices, whilst also reducing our collective environmental impact.
Put shortly, vertical hydroponic systems are an extremely resource efficient cultivation technology.
Specifically, hydroponic vertical farming is a controlled system of soilless plant production stacked in vertical layers. Because our plants are farmed indoor in a fully controlled environment, we can regulate and optimize lights, nutrients and the ambient environment in real time – thus facilitating optimal growing conditions for plants throughout their growth cycle. In addition, our plants are grown in a mineral solution rather than soil – optimizing nutrient uptake and eliminating the need for pesticides.
The vertical layout of a farm allows for a smaller areal footprint, enabling our farms to be built in proximity to cities, subsequently increasing local self sufficiency of food and reducing food waste. Pretty sweet, huh?
Like we said earlier, we could talk about vertical farming for days. Check out this blog post if you want to learn more about the magic that goes on in our factories.
CEO & co-founder
Kristina believes that innovative commercial solutions will play a leading role in the transition to a more sustainable society. She previously worked for Tesla in Europe, the Middle East and South Korea, and for Oatly in New York. She has significant experience with the disruption of traditional industries, as well as innovation and innovative branding strategies. She has a track record of leadership and scaling business models. Kristina brings a strong international perspective to the team, as well as a deep understanding of global food industry trends. She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor and Master in Environmental Sciences from UC Berkeley. She was previously a high-performance athlete for the Norwegian National Rowing Federation and UC Berkeley, and is quite competitive.
Email: kristina@onnagreens.no
Operations
Audun has professional expertise and deep knowledge of market dynamics within Norwegian agriculture, retail and Horeca. He studied entrepreneurship and innovation of Norwegian food production at NMBU, as well as economics combined with engineering at NTNU. Audun was also the winner of NMBU’s entrepreneurship-prize for urban industrialized farming in 2016.
Email: audun@onnagreens.no
Chief Agronomist
Olga is the plant whisperer. She is a civil agronomist experienced in urban farming, vertical hydroponics cultivation, and plant and water quality. She was previously the chief agronomist at BySpire and is one of the only agronomists in Norway experienced with commercial vertical farming. Olga studied agronomy in Serbia, as well as plant production at NMBU with a focus on sustainable agricultural systems and innovations within agricultural research.
Email: olga@onnagreens.no
Head of Plant Science Strategy
Emily has spent the past 7 years working in the sustainable food space, primarily progressing the strategy and technology behind controlled environment farming. Most recently she worked as a research scientist and R&D manager at Plenty, one of America's most experienced and well-funded agtech startups, where she focused on optimizing their industrial-scale indoor farms for quality, consistency, and efficiency. Areas of research included grow system hardware, cultivation techniques, lighting regimes, process automation, crop selection, and environmental optimization. Emily holds a BA in Evolutionary Biology from Harvard University and is currently working towards her MBA at Harvard Business School.
Email: emily@onnagreens.no
Head of Finance
With background from investment banking as well as audit & assurance services, Tobias brings vast financial knowledge to the table. Bookkeeping, financial modelling, investor meetings… bring it on! Having worked closely with offshore oil & gas for several years, he understands the growth potential in ESG-committed business models, and he is eager to be a part of the global transition towards sustainability.
Email: tobias@onnagreens.no
CEO & co-founder
Kristina is a staunch believer that innovative commercial solutions will play a leading role in the transition to a more sustainable society. She previously worked for Tesla in Europe, the Middle East and South Korea, and for Oatly in New York. She has significant experience with the disruption of traditional industries, as well as innovation and innovative branding strategies. She has a track record of leadership and scaling business models. Kristina brings a strong international perspective to the team, as well as a deep understanding of global food industry trends. She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor and Master in Environmental Sciences from UC Berkeley. She was previously a high-performance athlete for the Norwegian National Rowing Federation and UC Berkeley, and is quite competitive.
Email: kristina@onnagreens.no
Operations
Audun has professional expertise and deep knowledge of market dynamics within Norwegian agriculture, retail and Horeca. He studied entrepreneurship and innovation of Norwegian food production at NMBU, as well as economics combined with engineering at NTNU. Audun was also the winner of NMBU’s entrepreneurship-prize for urban industrialized farming in 2016.
Email: audun@onnagreens.no
Chief Agronomist
Olga is the plant whisperer. She is a civil agronomist experienced in urban farming, vertical hydroponics cultivation, and plant and water quality. She was previously the chief agronomist at BySpire and is one of the only agronomists in Norway experienced with commercial vertical farming. Olga studied agronomy in Serbia, as well as plant production at NMBU with a focus on sustainable agricultural systems and innovations within agricultural research.
Email: olga@onnagreens.no
Head of Plant Science Strategy
Emily has spent the past 7 years working in the sustainable food space, primarily progressing the strategy and technology behind controlled environment farming. Most recently she worked as a research scientist and R&D manager at Plenty, one of America's most experienced and well-funded agtech startups, where she focused on optimizing their industrial-scale indoor farms for quality, consistency, and efficiency. Areas of research included grow system hardware, cultivation techniques, lighting regimes, process automation, crop selection, and environmental optimization. Emily holds a BA in Evolutionary Biology from Harvard University and is currently working towards her MBA at Harvard Business School.
Email: emily@onnagreens.no
Head of Finance
With background from investment banking as well as audit & assurance services, Tobias brings vast financial knowledge to the table. Bookkeeping, financial modelling, investor meetings… bring it on! Having worked closely with offshore oil & gas for several years, he understands the growth potential in ESG-committed business models, and he is eager to be a part of the global transition towards sustainability.
Email: tobias@onnagreens.no
Chairman
Are has for the past 18 years held numerous central leadership positions and board seats in Norway’s real estate industry, and he is currently managing director of Norsk Takst.
Board Member
Arnt has extensive experience from Norwegian agriculture and food systems. Currently he manages a company focusing on strategic development, leadership, financial management and digitization. He was the CEO of Gartnerhallen for 17 years, and prior to that he spent 5 years at The Norwegian Crop Research Institute. He has held several board seats in agricultural food business companies. Arnt holds a MSc Agricultural Economics from NMBU.
Board Member
Janne is CEO of Samvirkene. She has 15 years of leadership experience from agriculture, seafoods and technology, and board experience from Vilomix Norge, Blue Lice and Abelia. Janne is an Economist with additional educational experience in leadership and board governance from NHH/Solstrand and IMD.
Board Member
Børge has 18 years of corporate law experience. He is a partner at BSN Advokatfirma ANS and an investor in early stage firms. He has also held several board seats.
Chairman
Are has for the past 18 years held numerous central leadership positions and board seats in Norway’s real estate industry, and he is currently managing director of Norsk Takst.
Board Member
Arnt has extensive experience from Norwegian agriculture and food systems. Currently he manages a company focusing on strategic development, leadership, financial management and digitization. He was the CEO of Gartnerhallen for 17 years, and prior to that he spent 5 years at The Norwegian Crop Research Institute. He has held several board seats in agricultural food business companies. Arnt holds a MSc Agricultural Economics from NMBU.
Board Member
Janne is CEO of Samvirkene. She has 15 years of leadership experience from agriculture, seafoods and technology, and board experience from Vilomix Norge, Blue Lice and Abelia. Janne is an Economist with additional educational experience in leadership and board governance from NHH/Solstrand and IMD.
Board Member
Børge has 18 years of corporate law experience. He is a partner at BSN Advokatfirma ANS and an investor in early stage firms. He has also held several board seats.
