An Innovation
Company
Niklas von Weymarn
CEO
Erik Kolehmainen
VP, Corporate Venturing
Katariina Kemppainen
SVP, Group R&D
Kirsti Härö
Executive assistant

About us

Metsä Spring is Metsä Group’s innovation company. We have a dual role:

  • We work to develop new businesses related to wood-based value chains, which involves both investing worldwide in promising start-ups as well as implementing our own selected pilot/demo projects; and
  • We lead group-level research and development with the aim of supporting and activating the development of Metsä Group’s current businesses.

All endeavours that Metsä Spring participates in must have the potential to strengthen the Metsä Group business ecosystem in the long run. Metsä Spring is a strategic investor and igniter of innovation in the field of the wood-based circular bioeconomy.

Most new innovations are born as a result of broad collaboration, which calls for partnering and genuine co-creation between a rich variety of organisations and persons. This is also the guiding philosophy of Metsä Spring.

Scope

Metsä Group business ecosystem

We use the term ‘business ecosystem’ to portray a network of organisations that have business relationships with each other. All organisations in the business ecosystem have their own strategies and goals, but together they form a symbiotic entity. From Metsä Group’s perspective, this brings about the industrial processing of renewable and certified Northern wood into added-value bioproducts and renewable energy.

The actors in Metsä Group’s business ecosystem range from forest owners, via several industrial value chains, to a variety of end-consumers. Other key dimensions of the ecosystem include various service providers as well as the recycling of materials.

Our areas of interest

Metsä Spring is looking for investment opportunities as well as doing technology scouting regarding solutions that can improve the business ecosystem around Metsä Group. Cases that are of interest to us range from business ideas built on the manufacturing of a physical product (with a link to Northern wood, that is spruce, pine, and birch, as the original raw material) to business ideas based on novel digital tools.

We believe that broad collaboration is essential for true innovation – join us on our quest to build the innovative and sustainable solutions of tomorrow.

Financing stage

With regard to start-up company investments, Metsä Spring is looking to help companies pass the so-called “valley of death”, which means that companies looking for Series A financing are the best fit to match our ambitions. In practise, this typically refers to young companies that already have a first product on the market and whose team has grown to around 5-10 members. When talking about business ideas based on manufacturing a physical product, the most suitable companies are those about to enter the pilot/demo phase and who thus look for financing to cover investment in a pilot/demo plant. In some selected cases, we can also consider companies that are at a late seed stage.

News

11.05.2023 MetsäSpring

Jatin Sethi appointed as R&D Manager of Metsä Spring

Jatin Sethi (PhD in Process Engineering) was appointed as R&D Manager at Metsä Spring on May 1st, 2023. At Metsä Spring, Jatin

Read more "Jatin Sethi appointed as R&D Manager of Metsä Spring"

26.04.2023 MetsäSpring

Metsä Spring portfolio company Montinutra brings SpruceSugar™ to consumers through personal care products

Montinutra partners up with Ole Hyvä Luonnontuote in a new personal care product range that utilises Montinutra’s Boreal Bioproducts® SpruceSugar™

Read more "Metsä Spring portfolio company Montinutra brings SpruceSugar™ to consumers through personal care products"

28.02.2023 MetsäSpring

Metsä Group’s and Valmet’s demo plant producing Muoto® fibre product receives international quality innovation prize

Metsä Group’s innovation company Metsä Spring and Valmet were recognized with the second prize in the international Quality Innovation Award

Read more "Metsä Group’s and Valmet’s demo plant producing Muoto® fibre product receives international quality innovation prize"

Social media

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