Corporate VC Metsä Spring Grows Business Opportunities On Trees

Metsä Group, one of the leading actors in the forest-based economy, with European production assets and global sales activities, and with a history reaching back to the 1930s, is opening its doors to innovative players from the international startup ecosystem with the Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) arm Metsä Spring. In addition to financing, selected startups are also provided with access to Metsä Group’s global network and expertise.

Innovations Are Born As A Result Of Broad Collaboration

The ambition behind the collaboration with young and driven companies is to reshape the forest-based bioeconomy. With its current network, Metsä Spring, as part of Metsä Group, has vast expertise – but still within fairly limited areas. And to be honest, a significant amount of the new business ideas, that can potentially improve the forest-based bioeconomy, will be born outside this network.

“Most innovations are born as a result of broad collaboration. This calls for partnering and genuine co-creation between a rich variety of organizations. And at the end of the day, it’s people doing the job – the role of individuals and personal chemistry must not be undervalued,” explains Niklas von Weymarn, CEO of Metsä Spring.

Looking For Solutions From Digital Tools To Physical Products

Metsä Spring is looking to help startups pass the “valley of death”. This means that the best fit with their ambitions are companies looking for Series A financing. However, in specific instances, Metsä Spring also considers being involved in the seed financing round. A common denominator for the startups of interest to Metsä Spring is the need to do final Proof of Concept (PoC) project, by which the company will hit the maturity level needed to be of interest to big industrial players like Metsä Group.

“We are looking for companies with solutions that make the business ecosystem around Metsä Group stronger in the future. The cases of interest span from business ideas built on the manufacturing of a physical product, with a link to wood as the original raw material, to business ideas based on novel digital tools,” adds von Weymarn.

Metsä Spring has already sealed its first investment, an investment into a newly-established joint venture together with Japanese Itochu Corporation that is aiming to demonstrate the feasibility of a novel technology converting wood-based pulp to textile fibre.

If your startup should be the next one, apply at Metsä Spring’s website.

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