{"id":122332,"date":"2023-02-10T07:29:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-10T06:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=122332"},"modified":"2023-02-07T14:09:34","modified_gmt":"2023-02-07T13:09:34","slug":"metsa-group-receives-finlands-most-startup-friendly-company-award-for-the-second-year-running","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/metsa-group-receives-finlands-most-startup-friendly-company-award-for-the-second-year-running\/","title":{"rendered":"Mets\u00e4 Group receives Finland\u2019s most startup-friendly company award for the second year running"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

Mets\u00e4 Group has been awarded as Finland\u2019s most startup-friendly company in 2022, receiving the award for the second year running. The award, presented by the entrepreneurship and startup community Tribe Tampere, is granted in recognition of the exceptional actions of large industrial corporations in collaboration with the startup sector.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are once again extremely grateful and proud that our determined contribution has led to this recognition,\u201d says Erik Kolehmainen<\/strong>, VP, Corporate Venturing at Mets\u00e4 Spring, the innovation arm of Mets\u00e4 Group. <\/p>

\u201cOur involvement goes beyond simply investing capital in promising startups. Through our strategic collaboration, startups benefit from access to Mets\u00e4 Group\u2019s industrial assets and knowledge to facilitate R&D and innovation, advancing the forest-based bioeconomy.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

As the winning company, Mets\u00e4 Group received particular praise for, among other things, the openness of its collaborations, and the involvement of the top management, signifying clear strategic importance of collaborating with the startup ecosystem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mets\u00e4 Group’s innovation company Mets\u00e4 Spring is a concrete example of Mets\u00e4 Group’s commitment to helping the growth of innovations and startups. Through Mets\u00e4 Spring, the group invests in promising startups and technologies that can improve the business ecosystem around Mets\u00e4 Group and bring value to the forestry and wood-based sectors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wood and bio-based innovations have recently been gathering momentum. According to Facts and Factors<\/a>, the global bio-based materials market size was worth around USD 21 billion in 2021 and is estimated to grow to about USD 82 billion by 2028.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several Finnish wood and bio-based companies are emerging at the forefront of this movement. Mets\u00e4 Spring\u2019s portfolio companies include startups like Innomost<\/a> that offers cosmetics producers biodegradable and renewable ingredients derived from Finnish birch. Mets\u00e4 Groups\u2019 internal demonstration projects include Kuura<\/a> \u2013 environmentally responsible textile fibre produced from softwood pulp, and Muoto<\/a>, an alternative for plastic packaging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to capital investment, startups can access a sustainable flow of raw materials sourced from Finnish forest owners. Startups can also establish R&D and demo plants close to or within Mets\u00e4 Group\u2019s facilities, where they can test their products and processes before scaling them to the market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One example of such cooperation is with Montinutra, a Finnish circular economy startup that upcycles forest industry side-streams, such as sawdust and bark, to produce high-value ingredients for applications including cosmetics, coatings, and packaging. As a Mets\u00e4 Spring portfolio company, Montinutra has just announced plans for a commercial demo plant that is situated at Mets\u00e4 Group\u2019s Vilppula sawmill site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThanks to Mets\u00e4 Group, we have secure and scalable access to the much-needed feedstocks that come from side-streams of the forest industry \u2013 we don\u2019t use land that could be cultivated for food, for example. Bringing new biochemicals to the market is a long process, but with the support of Mets\u00e4 Group, we have ability to scale our production capacity to a commercial scale,\u201d says founder and CEO of Montinutra, Jaakko Pajunen. <\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Finland\u2019s most startup-friendly company competition <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

A selected group of Finland’s largest companies participated in Finland’s most startup-friendly company competition. The goal of the annual competition is to draw attention to startup cooperation and offer practical models to be used to improve the operating culture and competitiveness. With the help of startup cooperation, companies can develop new technologies and products for customers and increase the agility and innovation of large companies as development partners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contact<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Erik Kolehmainen, VP, Corporate Venturing
Mets\u00e4 Spring
tel. +358 50 475 5815
E-Mail: erik.kolehmainen@metsagroup.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mets\u00e4 Group has been awarded as Finland\u2019s most startup-friendly company in 2022, receiving the award for the second year running. The award, presented by the entrepreneurship and startup community Tribe Tampere, is granted in recognition of the exceptional actions of large industrial corporations in collaboration with the startup sector. \u201cWe are once again extremely grateful […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"Mets\u00e4 Group has been honoured for its support of startup communities, advancing sustainable innovations related to various wood-based materials with investments, R&D and production support, thus helping startups bring their innovation to the masses","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[10416,6268,7105,5820],"supplier":[21053,4348,21727,21725],"class_list":["post-122332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-circulareconomy","tag-forestry","tag-packaging","tag-wood","supplier-innomost","supplier-metsae-group","supplier-montinutra","supplier-startupfriendly-co"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122332\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122332"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=122332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}