Espoo, Finland (29.6.2023). Metsä Spring’s first portfolio company, Woodio Ltd, today announced that it has closed a EUR 16.3 million equity financing round led by the UB Forest Industry Green Growth Fund and the European Innovation Council Fund. The new funding accelerates Woodio’s growth and internationalisation.
Woodio was established in 2016 and initially focused on developing and producing washbasins made using small wood chips and resins (chips are 70-80 volume-% of the final product). This laid the foundation for the signature Woodio® material. This novel wood-based material is unique in the sense that it is 100% waterproof and can be shaped into many different forms.
Woodio aims to provide the market with a significantly more sustainable alternative to many current products based on ceramics or stone. For instance, Woodio has assessed that the carbon footprint of a Woodio washbasin is approximately 80% lower compared to a similar product made out of ceramic. Woodio’s award-winning product portfolio has now expanded to toilets, bathtubs, and interior panels, among other things.
The role of Metsä Spring is to develop new businesses based on wood or wood-derived materials. The link to wood from Nordic forests is central to Metsä Spring’s thinking. The Woodio concept fits perfectly into this scope, as the company uses small wood chips as its primary raw material. In the past, Woodio has already launched a product family, Natural Birch, that is based on small wood chips obtained from Metsä Group’s mill in Joutseno, Finland. This mill generates such small wood chips as a side stream.
“It was very exciting to become a minority owner of Woodio in 2019. It was our first investment in a startup company, taking place about a year after Metsä Spring was established in 2018. The new funding gathered in 2019 enabled the construction of Woodio’s current production facility in Helsinki. It’s really great to witness how Woodio has now progressed to the point where a completely new phase in the company’s journey is about to begin,” says Niklas von Weymarn, CEO of Metsä Spring.
For additional information:
Link to Woodio’s press release
Niklas von Weymarn, CEO
Metsä Spring
niklas.vonweymarn@metsagroup.com
Metsä Spring was established in 2018 as Metsä Group’s innovation company. Metsä Spring invests in and supports potential sustainable innovations and technologies that find new purposes and higher value for Nordic wood to replace fossil-based materials and chemicals in everyday products.
To date, Metsä Spring has made four external startup investments to Woodio, Innomost, Montinutra, and Fiberwood, and has launched two in-house development projects Kuura and Muoto.