PULPAPER 2022 STARTUP COMPETITION WON BY MONTINUTRA

Seven companies participated in the PulPaper Award Startup Competition. The competition brings forth new and significant solutions in the field of forest bioeconomy. The winner of the competition is Montinutra, which uses sawdust as raw material in the preparation of Sprucegum ™ extract for use in the cosmetics, techno chemical and even food industries. The honorary award was given to Natural Antivirals.

The start-up competition looked for the most promising and potential growth companies in the forest bioeconomy field. The PulPaper Award is given to a Finnish company that has developed an innovation that produces a positive image for the forest bioeconomy industry and from which an internationally significant product or service can be developed. At its best, the solution also opens up new perspectives in the forest bioeconomy sector. The winner is granted a 5000 e PulPaper Award funded by the Finnish Fair Foundation.

Montinutra’s innovation is truly related to the forest industry, competitive and scalable. It is also new and interesting from a consumer perspective. Montinutra uses raw material from the forest industry, which is generated from the byproducts of the forest industry. The raw material used adds significant value to the product. Montinutra Spruce Extract is an important innovation in wood processing.

In the high-quality competition, the jury gave an honorary award to Natural Antivirals for putting the healing effect of forest nature on everyone’s skin. With the honorary award, the jury wanted to thank the company for an innovative product with a lot of good research behind it.

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PulPaper 2022 competition for start-up companies

The competition highlights new and significant solutions in the forest bioeconomy field, and the winner will be awarded a € 5,000 PulPaper Award funded by the Finnish Fair Foundation.

The start-up competition is looking for the most promising and potential growth companies in the forest bioeconomy field. The PulPaper Award is given to a Finnish company that has developed an innovation that produces a positive image for the forest bioeconomy industry and from which an internationally significant product or service can be developed. At its best, the solution also opens up new perspectives in the forest bioeconomy sector.

The competition is organized by Messukeskus in cooperation with The Finnish Forest Products Engineers’ Association and the Finnish Business Angels Network (FiBAN). FiBAN is one of the largest business angel networks in Europe, with more than 670 investors as members.

Seven companies participate in the Start-up Competition

The first stage of the Start-up competition will take place 10.00 AM on Wednesday June 8 at Future Square, while the final will take place at 2.15 PM. The winner will be announced at the evening event PulPaper Party. Participants in the first stage are Dry and Durable, Fincet, Montinutra, Natural Antivirals, Silva Trace, Tapio Measurement Technologies and Woodio. The competition brings forth new and significant solutions in the field of forest bioeconomy.

The competition jury will select from the proposals the best ideas and solutions that will advance to the pitching competition at the event. The jury makes its selection on the basis of pitching presentations. In choosing the winner, the jury takes into account the innovativeness and originality of the business idea, the market potential of the product, the credibility of the business plan and its implementation and the pitch presentation itself.

The start-up competition is now arranged for the third time. The previous competition, held in 2018, was won by Lumir, which designs and produces wall and ceiling surfaces that effectively prevent reverberation.

Jury

The jury of the start-up competition consists of Johan Engström (ANDRITZ), Heli Kangas (VTT), Annukka Mickelsson (FIBAN), Saara Söderberg (AFRY), Martti Toivakka (Åbo Akademi University), Petri Vakkilainen (Metsä Group), Jouni Paltakari (Aalto University), Antti Lindqvist (PI) and Marcus Bergström (Messukeskus).