Grieg Edge
Grieg Edge is the corporate innovation unit of Norway's Grieg Maritime Group, backing early-stage maritime and ocean technology from Bergen. Its standout water bet is Ocean Oasis, a startup turning wave energy into desalinated drinking water. As of 2026, Leviathan tracks a single water company across two recorded deals.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
Grieg Edge is not a water fund. It is the in-house innovation and venture arm of the Grieg Maritime Group, a Norwegian shipowning family whose roots run back to 1884, set up in 2020 under managing director Nicolai Grieg to chase new business in shipping and the wider ocean economy. It is a maritime investor first, and water shows up through the ocean rather than instead of it.
Grieg Edge's one water company is Ocean Oasis, an Oslo startup that anchors a platform offshore and uses the motion of the waves to push seawater through a membrane, producing fresh drinking water with no emissions. Grieg Edge came in as a strategic investor and active partner, handing over capital plus maritime engineering know-how and putting Kjerstin Hernes, its head of ocean ventures, on the company's board. For a shipping group, desalination that runs on the sea itself is a natural adjacency, not a leap.
Grieg Edge spends most of its attention on shipping's own decarbonisation, green short-sea vessels, offshore wind, zero-emission fuels, so the clearest way to read its water exposure is as a single deliberate bet rather than a standing thesis. In my Leviathan database that bet is one company across two deals, which is what a strategic corporate investor in water often looks like: narrow, patient, and tied to the parent's core. If you arrived here expecting a dedicated water fund, the honest answer is that Grieg Edge is a maritime group that found one water problem worth backing.
Water Commitment Score
Compiled from official filings, third-party records, and direct intelligence from investors and founders, in Leviathan · recomputed monthly · as of Jun 2026.
Portfolio · 1 water companies
Invests alongside
Highlighted = profiled on (don't) Waste Water.
Frequently asked
- What does Grieg Edge invest in?
- Grieg Edge invests in early-stage maritime and ocean technology on behalf of Norway's Grieg Maritime Group, with a focus on decarbonising shipping: green short-sea vessels, offshore wind and zero-emission fuels. Its single water-relevant investment is Ocean Oasis, a wave-powered offshore desalination company.
- Who runs Grieg Edge?
- Grieg Edge was set up in 2020 and is led by managing director Nicolai Grieg, a member of the founding shipowning family who also serves as deputy CEO of the Grieg Maritime Group. Its ocean-ventures investing is headed by Kjerstin Hernes, who sits on the board of portfolio company Ocean Oasis.
- What is Grieg Edge's water investment?
- Grieg Edge's one water company is Ocean Oasis, an Oslo startup whose floating platform uses wave energy to drive seawater through a membrane and produce fresh drinking water with no emissions. Grieg Edge backed it as a strategic investor and partner, contributing capital and maritime engineering expertise.
- Where is Grieg Edge based?
- Grieg Edge is based in Bergen, Norway, the home port of its parent, the Grieg Maritime Group, with a second office in Oslo. The Bergen base reflects its maritime roots: it is the venture arm of a Norwegian shipowning family whose history runs back to 1884.
- Is Grieg Edge the same as Ocean Oasis?
- No. Grieg Edge is the investor, the innovation arm of the Grieg Maritime Group, and Ocean Oasis is one of the companies it backs. Ocean Oasis is a separate Oslo-based startup building wave-powered desalination; Grieg Edge holds a stake and a board seat through its head of ocean ventures.