About

We’re creating a future that feels good.

Our Mission

We produce the most sustainable textile materials in the world for the benefit of the environment and humanity.

By doing so we will transform the raw material base of the entire global textile industry for the better.

Our story

It all started with spiderweb

It was 2009. Technical Research Centre of Finland’s (VTT) cellulose expert Juha Salmela was researching nanocellulose. He attended a conference in Oxford university and heard a presentation from a leading spider researcher, who explained the similarities between spiderweb’s protein and nanocellulose.

That’s when an idea came to Juha: what if wood fibre could be spun into textile fibre in a similar way to this natural process? The professor immediately thought it was something Juha should look into and develop.

Spinning off

As part of an EU project, Juha and VTT began to take the innovation forward and soon applied for a patent for the idea. The innovation was fostered in VTT for some time. Once seeing this was the most prominent innovation within the nano and microcellulose field that he had ever seen, Janne Poranen, Head of Biomaterials research area at VTT, made a decision to spin the business off.

Janne asked Juha to join in and when getting a yes, the story of Spinnova began quickly. With the support of the first investors including the VTT, Spinnova was founded by Juha and Janne in January 2015.

Building the core team

Three key people from Juha’s research team, Pasi Selenius, Johanna Liukkonen and Sanna Haavisto, also joined at the very beginning. This was critical for the smooth start and successful development of the company. Still on a laboratory scale, the technology and the fibre were well on their way for the first real trials. Trial & error was in the core of this courageous learning journey, and the right concept was starting to take shape.

Scaling up to a pilot

After laboratory scale R&D, the technology was scaled up to a continuous pilot scale that was specifically built for this and completed at the end of 2018. A large industrial scale pilot did not take long to build according to Juha's vision, but the intricacies of such greenfield tech and a completely novel fibre took a while to optimize. At this point, several globally renown brand owners had already taken an interest in the fibre, and some were already working with us on joint R&D.

Preparing for commercial phase

In 2020, our journey is on the verge of commercialization. The technology has been scaled up from a small pilot scale to an industrial pilot scale. With our committed brand partners, we have introduced the first demo products made of the fibre. Now, we are finalizing product properties and production processes, while working on further prototypes with partners who share our passion for sustainability.

Speeding up growth

In 2021, we have taken concrete steps towards our commercial phase. We have announced plans of scaling our production up with our partner Suzano, in a joint venture that will build our first commercial factory in Finland. The new factory is estimated to start operations at the end of 2022, producing the purest materials available for our brand partners. In June, we successfully listed on the Nasdaq Helsinki First North Growth Market to finance our further growth and scaling. Stay tuned for the next developments!

Ramping up production

In 2023, we officially opened the first commercial-scale facility producing wood-based SPINNOVA® fibre with the world's largest pulp producer Suzano. Operated by Woodspin – Spinnova's and Suzano’s joint venture – the plant will produce 1,000 tonnes of sustainable, recyclable and fully biodegradable textile fibre from responsibly-grown wood each year.

Our values

Strong values help us create positive impact.

We at Spinnova adhere to five core values in our every-day work: trust, courage, sustainability, innovation and teamwork. All these values have specific meaning to us.

Meet Spinnova's visionaries

Our team is dedicated to transforming an entire industry for the better.

Chief Executive Officer

Tuomas Oijala


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Chief Financial Officer, Deputy CEO

Ben Selby


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Chief Technology Officer, Co-founder

Juha Salmela


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Chief Operating Officer

Petri Poranen


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Chief Sustainability Officer

Shahriare Mahmood


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Chief Sales Officer

Allan Andersen


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Executive Vice President, Production Scaling

Teemu Lindberg


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General Counsel

Lasse Holopainen


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Chief Human Resources Officer

Santeri Heinonen


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Chair of Board, Co-founder

Janne Poranen


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Get in touch

Excited about Spinnova? If you want to hear more about us or get involved, here’s how.

We are happy answer your questions concerning us and our product. Kindly note that our fibre is not yet commercially available, and we are unable to reply to requests for quotes on price, quantity or quality. Looking forward to hearing about you!

General Enquiries

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Investor Contacts

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