Big business and startups working together to fight climate change
IPCC’s recent climate report tells a grim story about the severity of climate change and the consequences if no action is taken. Hope and will to tame climate change can now also be found in the business world, where the fight against climate change is being fought through collaboration between big business and startups.
Metsä Group has been selected as the most startup friendly company in Finland in 2021. Metsä Spring – Metsä Group’s innovation company has been established to develop cooperation with new startups, in particular to promote sustainable development innovations. Metsä Spring aims to develop new business related to wood-based value chains. This includes both investing in promising startups worldwide and promoting its own pilot/demo projects.
Collaborative innovations for sustainable development
In 2021, Metsä Group made a venture capital investment in two startups, Innomost and Montinutra, which transform forest industry side streams into valuable bioactive products. Metsä Group also has several production facilities that can supply raw materials for product manufacturing.
In addition, Metsä Spring’s internal development projects have resulted in the internationally recognised Kuura paper pulp-based textile fibre that replaces cotton and fossil textile fibres, and wood-based 3D packaging product that replaces fossil raw materials in packaging.
Award to support the development of cooperation
The Most Startup Friendly Company in Finland award was presented for the fourth time by Tribe Tampere, the startup community that organizes the competition. The aim of the award is to recognise the significant cooperations between large companies in the startup sector. Tribe believes that the award encourages large companies to collaborate and invest in startup development and to explore new areas of business.
The representatives of the jury, Alexandra Santos, Executive Director of Platform6 startup house, and Jan Ameri, CEO of Arctic Startup, are pleased with the recent increase in activity towards startups by many large Finnish companies at various levels of support, services, investment and collaboration.
“The winner for this year stands out for their active investments during the pandemic in startups delivering top-tier solutions for development of new sustainable materials and great innovation examples for circular economy and sustainability goals.” says Alexandra Santos. KONE will receive an honorable mention in the 2021 competition.
The main organizers of the 2021 competition, Yoga Semadhi from Tribe Tampere and Juho Rissanen from BrainStormCorner found the work both challenging and rewarding. “There is great potential in evolving and fair cooperation models between large corporations and startups” says Rissanen.
The Most Startup Friendly Company in Finland competition is one of the ways Tribe Tampere wants to support the development of new innovative startup ideas. Tribe Tampere provides resources, networks and opportunities for collaboration to develop your own startup idea with a low threshold.
Further information:
Recipient of the Main Prize “The Most Startup Friendly Company 2021, Metsä Group:
Erik Juhani Kolehmainen, VP, Corporate Venturing, Metsä Spring,
erik.kolehmainen(at)metsagroup.com
Chairperson of the selection panel, Tribe Tampere:
Yoga Semadhi, Project Manager, Tribe Tampere:
yoga.semadhi(at)tribetampere.com
Marketing Lead, Tribe Tampere:
Mirella Mellonmaa, Marketing Lead, Tribe Tampere:
mirella.mellonmaa(at)tribetampere.com