---
title: "Scaling a welfare technology startup"
description: "Innocom built Berntsen, an activation technology supporting municipal healthcare services for elderly care across dozens of Norwegian municipalities. As a fast-growing startup, they needed both the engineering capacity to scale and the strategic technical leadership to keep product and business aligned. Devspace provided both."
url: "https://www.devspace.no/cases/innocom-berntsen"
markdown: "https://www.devspace.no/cases/innocom-berntsen.md"
type: "case"
site: "devspace"
updated: "2026-06-05"
client: "Innocom"
industry: "Healthcare"
location: "Norway"
customer_since: "2023"
---

# Scaling a welfare technology startup

> Innocom built Berntsen, an activation technology supporting municipal healthcare services for elderly care across dozens of Norwegian municipalities. As a fast-growing startup, they needed both the engineering capacity to scale and the strategic technical leadership to keep product and business aligned. Devspace provided both.

- **Client:** Innocom
- **Industry:** Healthcare
- **Location:** Norway
- **Customer since:** 2023

## The challenge

Innocom is a Norwegian welfare technology company. Their first solution, Berntsen, is an activation technology designed to support municipal healthcare services - helping elderly users engage with digital tools in a way that improves quality of life and reduces the burden on care staff. The solution is used by dozens of municipalities, schools, and hospitals across Norway.

As Berntsen gained traction, Innocom faced the dual challenge that most fast-growing healthcare startups encounter: the need to scale engineering capacity quickly to keep pace with demand, while simultaneously maintaining a strategic grip on product and technology decisions.

Scaling a development team from scratch takes time. Hiring a full-time CTO is expensive and carries real risk at the early stage. Innocom needed a partner who could provide the right level of engineering capacity at each phase of growth - and the technical leadership to ensure that product decisions were grounded in both commercial reality and sound architecture.

## What we did

Engineering capacity and strategic technical leadership, scaled to each stage of the business.

### Gradual, stage-appropriate team scaling

We helped Innocom build and scale their development team gradually - adding capacity in line with what each stage of the business actually required. Not over-hiring ahead of revenue, not under-resourcing ahead of key releases. The team composition evolved as the product matured.

### Fractional CTO expertise

Innocom drew on our Fractional CTO capability - accessing senior technical leadership on a part-time basis. This gave them strategic oversight of the product architecture, informed decision-making on build-vs-buy trade-offs, and a technical voice in commercial conversations - without the cost and commitment of a full-time hire.

### Healthcare and public sector context

Building a healthcare product for municipal clients in Norway requires navigating specific compliance expectations, public procurement norms, and stakeholder environments that differ significantly from commercial B2B SaaS. Our team brought experience with this context, which meant Innocom didn't have to explain the landscape before getting useful input.

## The outcome

Innocom scaled their development operations without the overhead and risk of building a large permanent engineering team at the wrong stage. They always had the capacity they needed - whether ramping up for a key release or operating lean between growth phases.

The Fractional CTO engagement ensured that technology and business decisions remained aligned throughout. Product architecture decisions were made with full awareness of their commercial implications - and vice versa.

Berntsen is now deployed across dozens of municipalities, schools, and hospitals in Norway. Innocom has the engineering foundation and strategic clarity to continue expanding the platform.

## Our Case Studies

- [E-prescription integration strategy for Norwegian online pharmacy](https://www.devspace.no/cases/appoteket) (Appo, Healthcare): Appoteket needed a partner who understood Norway's e-prescription landscape, not just the technology. Devspace delivered market research, competitor analysis, and a validated integration strategy - from a team with hands-on digital health experience.

## Tell us what you need. We'll find the right engineers.

Whether you need senior developers embedded in your team, a Fractional CTO, or a technology assessment before a deal — most engagements start within 2–4 weeks.

Contact devspace: email [post@devspace.no](mailto:post@devspace.no) or use the contact form at https://www.devspace.no/#contact-form (name, email, phone (optional), company, what you are looking for).

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