Following the USD 20 million investment it received from Scandinavian private equity firm Herkules Deal-by-Deal last year, technology company 99x has set its sights on aggressive market expansion in the Nordics and to support this growth, has strengthened its leadership with the appointment of Kari Bente Skarbø as Director – Business Development.

Based in Oslo, Norway, Skarbø is a versatile professional with core competencies in business development, leadership, change management and digitalization. In her new role at 99x, she will focus on growth, business expansion, strategic partnerships and increased profitability.

“Having worked in the Nordics for over 15 years, we understood that we required a seasoned presence on the ground to achieve our goals for further market expansion. Kari Bente comes to us with a wealth of experience across the Scandinavian technology space. We are confident in her ability to help us enter new arenas and build new strategic partnerships, to increase our footprint in Scandinavia,” noted 99x Founder and CEO Mano Sekaram, commenting on the new appointment.

Skarbø has worked across the Nordic technology industry, commencing with digital transformation early on in her career and during this time, worked closely with the Gartner Group in defining the magic quadrant for marketing technology. She then moved onto management consulting for larger enterprises for nearly a decade, holding roles that included Director Business Development, Partner, CEO, and Head of the Board of Directors.

She was awarded the title Consultant of the Year in Norway in that period for establishing a new standard for how strategies are made available and internalized for leaders as well as employees by using technology as an enabler. Skarbø then moved back to the hard-core technology industry, joining a Norwegian logtech company in the scaling phase to help realize their international ambitions. This is where she first encountered 99x as they were part of the company’s virtual development team.

“When I first encountered 99x, I was truly impressed with its maturity, capabilities and culture, and when the opportunity to join the company opened up, I was very excited. The need for IT consultancy services is extremely large as digitalization challenges the scalability of virtually any business. The supply of Nordic IT resources is not keeping up with the demand. These days, the competitive edge for businesses lie in the accessibility to competences with long-term partners, catering to continuity and scalability,” stated Skarbø.

She is in Colombo on her first visit to the country, to meet the 99x team and better understand the operations in Sri Lanka, and strategize how this can be scaled to meet the evolving digitalization expectations of Norwegian enterprises and independent software vendors.

99x is a technology company co-creating well-engineered, innovative digital products for the Scandinavian market. Its expertise has been proven through a portfolio of over 150 impactful global digital products, developed together with leading Independent Software Vendors (ISVs). 99x employs over 400 technology and product specialists, who are high achievers, creative thinkers and team players. The company is one of Asia’s Best Workplaces for 2021 and has been named a Best Workplace in Sri Lanka for nine consecutive years.