Finnish startup Fiberdom, which converts wood pulp (like cardboard) into strong, usable products, has secured a €3.5 million investment. The company, which has proven commercially successful with plastic-free cutlery and will use the funding for research and development and further commercialization of its technology and materials in high-growth markets, including food contact materials, durable packaging and storage, and furniture.
Founded in 2019, the company said it infuses sustainably sourced wood fibers with natural ingredients, then uses heat and pressure to transform the fibers into products like single-use cutlery that complies with the EU’s stringent Single-Use Plastics Directive. They said their durable, versatile products are 100% plastic-free, recyclable and compostable in standard carton streams and home-compost bins.
Sustainable cutlery and other products are especially important in tourist areas. One recent study reported that, of all the extensive waste left by tourists, “plastic-related wastes are considered most serious pollutants having severe impact over environment and aquatic species.” Between 50% and 80% of all tourism is on islands and in coastal areas where the plastic winds up in the ocean, making a local problem a global one.
“The Philippines temporarily closed the island of Boracay to clean up dumped sewage and to upgrade its drainage systems to make them free from plastic blockage,” researchers reported. “Thailand has stopped Maya Bay, to allow it to recover from pollution and other damage caused by tourists. Moreover in 2017, Indonesia declared a ‘garbage emergency’ in parts of Bali to combat with plastic waste and its impact.”
The difficulty has been finding sustainable, circular replacements that were durable.
”Replacing single-use plastics in food packaging and in serving and eating on-the-go food is one of the key pain points in the food system, both for the industry and for the consumers,” said says Pekka Siivonen-Uotila, partner at Nordic Foodtech VC, one of the investors. “Fiberdom’s technology addresses all four critical corners of a winning solution: functionality, scalability, sustainability, and recyclability. We believe the cutlery is a great starting point for much broader innovation in plastic-free products.”
The new funding was raised from long-term investor Heino Group, together with Nordic Foodtech and Holdix Oy, and included a €0.6 million grant from Business Finland.
“This funding represents a pivotal moment for Fiberdom as we scale our breakthrough technology to address the growing global demand for truly alternative materials,” said Tomi Järvenpää, General Manager at Fiberdom. “The materials revolution is happening now, and this investment enables us to accelerate our mission of replacing non-essential plastics with superior material alternatives that deliver both environmental and performance benefits.”
