About us

The energy to transform.

HitecVision in short

Building companies, transforming energy.

HitecVision is a Norwegian private equity firm and leading specialist energy investor across Europe. As serial entrepreneurs, we have invested in or built more than 200 companies over four decades, developing and transforming businesses alongside management teams and our trusted partners. Our diverse team brings experience from both the energy industry and finance. With operational and investment expertise across the full value chain, we aim to deliver attractive returns for leading institutional investors worldwide.

40

year track record

43

investment team

200+

companies invested in

14

active platform investments

8

TWh of renewable energy generation

9

EURbn capital raised

Sustainability report

Our annual account of who we are, how we operate, the progress of our portfolio companies, and the standards we hold ourselves to.

Download Sustainability report 2025 Report archive
Company history

From a serial entrepreneur in oil and gas to a defining force in the European energy transition.

  1. 2019 to present

    Building companies in the energy transition

    Since 2019, HitecVision has focused its strategy and all new investments on the energy transition in Europe. The strategy uses the same hands-on approach to building companies, leveraging its proven BlackBook model, which combines industrial value creation and organic growth with M&A, financing and structuring expertise to scale businesses quickly and execute complex transformations. Since the New Energy Fund series was launched in 2021, the firm has raised more than EUR 3 billion for the program. Erlend Basmo Ellingsen joined HitecVision in 2016. He played a central role in building some of the firm’s upstream oil and gas investments and later led the strategic pivot to the energy transition, before becoming Managing Partner and CEO in 2025. The Founding Partners, Ole and Pål, remain closely involved in the firm today as permanent members of the Investment Committee.

  2. 2000 to 2019

    Private equity: Establishing HitecVision and laying the foundation

    Following the sale of Hitec’s drilling technology business and the Hitec brand to National Oilwell in 2000, Ole Ertvaag established HitecVision to manage and realise the 14 companies not included in the sale. This laid the foundation for the firm’s transition into private equity, and Pål M. Reed joined as Founding Partner. 

    Oil services and technology

    In 2002, HitecVision raised its first institutional private equity fund, providing growth capital to small and medium-sized companies, mainly in the oil and gas industry. Under Ole and Pål’s leadership, the firm raised five successive funds totalling more than USD 3 billion, establishing its track record as a leading European energy investor.

    Upstream oil and gas and related infrastructure

    In 2015, HitecVision shifted its focus to investing in and building larger, asset-backed companies within upstream oil and gas and related energy infrastructure. Ole and Pål led the firm through the shift, with a strategy focused on combining cash-flow generating assets with significant upside potential through organic growth and operational value-add, rapidly scaling businesses through high M&A activity and complex business transformations. In this period, the firm raised two sector-focused funds, totalling more than USD 2.5 billion, and built some of the largest and most profitable companies in the European oil and gas industry. These companies have been developed and realised as planned, returning more than USD 11 billion to investors since 2019.

  3. 1985 to 2000

    Hitec: Built from inside the industry

    HitecVision traces its roots to 1985, when Hitec AS was established as a supplier of control systems and instrumentation to the drilling industry. Founding Partner Ole Ertvaag was recruited as Hitec’s CFO in 1989. Through the 1990s, the team built a strong track record of acquiring, developing and spinning out oil services and technology companies, as well as expanding internationally.

Community engagement

We support local initiatives and are committed to giving back to our communities. We work with selected charities and social enterprises to help bridge social gaps.