Marte Sootholtet is the CEO of Impact StartUp Norway — the country's leading catalyst for startups with positive societal impact at their core. A trained Kaospilot with nearly two decade of experience in social innovation and the startup ecosystem, she is on a mission to fundamentally change how we measure and create value in business.

Through Impact StartUp, Marte connects promising entrepreneurs with capital, knowledge, and the public sector — helping them scale from bold ideas into real-world change. Impact StartUp incubates and accelerates a growing portfolio of ventures and social enterprises focused on preventing social challenges rather than reacting to them and creating a cleaner and more circular future. 

A passionate advocate for Impact Management and Impact Investing as a driver of systems change, Marte believes that financial performance alone is no longer a sufficient measure of success. She leads with courage, curiosity, and a firm belief that vulnerability and imperfection are not weaknesses — they are the very ingredients that make new ventures come alive.



At Nordic Edge Expo 2026, Marte represents a new generation of business builders placing regenerative, resilient, and inclusive communities not on the margins — but at the very heart of how we do business.