Corentium promotes radon detection
This startup wants to make radon detectors as common as smoke detectors in the home
Photo courtesy of Corentium
The company’s professional-grade radon detector logs information on a computer or smartphone app.
Rasmus Falck
Oslo, Norway
The Norway-based startup Corentium manufactures accurate, user-friendly radon detectors, giving the most precise results to protect health and promote safety. This year they will produce 30,000 units, and more than 80 percent are exported to the U.S.
Radon is nothing to joke about. In the U.S. and Europe alone, 41,000 people die every year from lung cancer caused by the gas. The company’s goal is to make radon detectors as common as smoke detectors.
The company was founded in 2008 by researchers at CERN in Geneva. In 2012 they made a small profit. Last year they had a revenue of NOK 17.5 million and a profit of NOK 1.5 million.
Corentium doubled their revenue during the first half of this year, and the company is expected to make NOK 100 million in revenue in 2018.
The CEO is Øyvind Birkenes. He has experience from Texas Instruments and a passion for creating fast growth of tech businesses.
The cofounders—Koki Yoshioka, Bjørn Magne Sundal, and Eirik Næss-Ulseth—own the majority of the company. Yoshioka has a Doctor of Science in electrical engineering and experience in development of radiation detector systems for CERN. Sundal is the brain behind all the company’s products; he has a Doctor of Science in physics and wide experience with sensor and detector systems. The last founder is Næss-Ulseth, who has more than twenty years of experience working with high technology companies within electronics, IT, and biotechnology.
The product is produced by Noraurton in Horten, just south of Oslo. For USD 199, you can buy their simple but powerful radon gas detector for the home. It is designed for durability and efficiency, and the batteries will last for two years. According to the company, it provides exactly what the customer needs to stay on top of information about radon levels.
The next version is built with multiple state-of-the art sensors and will record everything so that the user can view fluctuations in radon concentration by the hour. The device is user-friendly and uses Excel-compatible software that allows the user to upload data on their computer.
The most expensive product is made for home inspectors and professionals and is certified for the North American market. The data, captured using four highly accurate silicon photodiodes, is seamlessly transferred to the user’s smartphone or computer. The largest manager of property in Norway with more than 12,000 buildings, the Norwegian Defence Estates Agency, purchased a large number of the Corentium products in 2012.
The company’s mission is to ensure that people around the world take control of their air quality through simple, affordable, and accurate solutions. The future looks bright!
Rasmus Falck is a strong innovation and entrepreneurship advocate. The author of “What do the best do better” and “The board of directors as a resource in SME,” he received his masters degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He currently lives in Oslo, Norway.
This article originally appeared in the July 29, 2016, issue of The Norwegian American. To subscribe, visit SUBSCRIBE or call us at (206) 784-4617.
