The Green Transition Business Competition culminated in the Gala – Elmery Oy took the win
The winner of the yearly Green Transition Business Competition organised by Biocluster Finland was announced on Thursday, May 22, at the Green Transition Gala in Oulu. The winner of 2025 is Elmery Oy from Espoo. The winner was selected based on the general evaluation criteria of the competition that were innovativeness of the product or solution, growth potential, implementation ability of the team and environmental impact.
Elmery Oy is a revenue-stage deep tech company, offering patented cost-efficient and sustainable technology for critical metal refining.
Elmery’s technology helps the critical mineral value chain to reduce CO2 emissions, chemical usage and related waste, improve recycling of metals and enable metal recovery from earlier unviable sources.
The evaluation criteria and the Award Ceremony
The Gala was opened by Ari Alatossava, the Mayor of the city of Oulu. The Mayor highlighted Oulu as a northern city of innovation and culture, and wished the award nominees success in their green growth business.
The jury selected 10 innovative and growth-oriented young companies from among all applicants. All award nominees pitched their business at the Gala. The winner was selected based on pre-evaluation and pitch presentation.
– Elmery Oy representes the finnish pioneer of green transition very well. The company has strong growth potential and is at the forefront of the energy transition and mining industry. In addition, the company already has a positive proof of promoting green growth, stated Business Coach Jarno Valkeapää from Business Finland, acting as the jury’s representative.
Valkeapää also commented of the judging, stating that selecting a winner this year was very challenging. Many of the award nominees were connected to each other, for example through their industry, and Valkeapää recommended the companies to collaborate with each other.
In addition to Valkeapää, the jury included representatives of Finnvera, Aalto University, Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), University of Oulu, Centria University of Applied Sciences and Taaleri Bioindustry VC.
The award was presented by Olavi Soinio, the CEO of VYP Yritysjätepalvelut. Soinio highlighted the importance of promoting green growth and the potential of the award nominess in achieving the goal. Soinio also stated that VYP Yritysjätepalvelut supports the project because the company wants to contribute to promoting the circular economy and sustainable business in Finland.
In his speech, Mika Paalanne, CEO of Elmery Oy, the winner of the competition, thanked the other Elmery co-founders and the entire team, Aalto University, and the financiers who have helped establish the startup. Paalanne stated that Elmery is looking forward to collaborating and networking with other companies promoting green growth.
Form left to right: CEO Olavi Soinio, VYP Yritysjätepalvelut; CEO Mika Paalanne, Elmery Oy; Cluster Manager Anne Sormunen, Biocluster Finland; Business Coach Jarno Valkeapää, Business Finland. Photo: Teemu Liikanen
Nordtreat Oy was chosen as the audience favorite
The audience voted Nordtreat Oy from Vantaa as their favorite. Nordtreat’s pitch convinced the audience with its informativeness and clearness.
Nordtreat Oy is promoting sustainable wood construction by developing and producing bio-based flame retardants for timber products. Sustainable and environmentally friendly solutions fulfill EU-standards for different fire classifications and enable safe use of beautiful wood surfaces even in the most demanding buildings in interior and exterior cladding, CLT and glulam structures, and other wood surfaces.
The CEO of Nordtreat Oy, Outi Kallio, thanked the green transition community present after the win. Kallio also highlighted the importance of achieving the green transition goals that all the award nominees present are dreaming of.
From left to right: CEO Outi Kallio, Nordtreat Oy; Business Coach Jarno Valkeapää, Business Finland; Cluster Manager Anne Sormunen, Biocluster Finland; CEO Mika Paalanne, Elmery Oy; Mayor Ari Alatossava, City of Oulu. Photo: Teemu Liikanen
Biocluster Finland organizing the business competition promotes green growth
Biocluster Finland’s focus is on promoting green growth business and innovation activities both nationally and in international collaboration. The aim of highlighting the award nominees and winning companies is to encourage other companies to develop environmentally friendlier business solutions.
– The competition was again attended by a high-level group of companies from all over Finland that offer environmentally friendlier solutions to the market. We received particularly high-level applications this year, which shows that environmentally friendlier business motivates growth-oriented companies, stated Biocluster Finland’s Cluster Manager Anne Sormunen.
According to Sormunen, environmental friendliness is also a competitive advantage for companies and part of sustainable business practices.
The jury and award nominees from left to right: CEO Eero Knuutila, LignoSphere Company Oy; Sales & Marketing Director Aino Erkinjuntti, Innomost Oy; Regional Manager Risto Koskiniemi, Finnvera; CEO Outi Kallio, Nordtreat Oy; RDI-Manager Petri Kähärä, Centria University of Applied Sciences; CEO Jaakko Pajunen, Montinutra Oy; CEO Petri Laakso, Soletair Power Oy; CEO Mika Paalanne, Elmery Oy; Communications Specialist Emma Penttinen, Onego Bio Ltd; Cluster Manager Anne Sormunen, Biocluster Finland; Business Coach Jarno Valkeapää, Business Finland; Senior Customer Manager Hanna Lindqvist, Natural Resources Institute Finland (LUKE); Executive Director Tomi Järvenpää, Fiberdom Oy; Key Account Manager Kristiina Siilin, Capalo AI Oy. Photo: Teemu Liikanen
The Green Transition Gala is an annual event that rotates around Finland. The Gala was first held as the evening event of an EU event in Levi and last year in Helsinki. Biocluster Finland is a consortium that promotes green growth business and innovations. In its international collaboration with clusters located in different countries and the European Commission, the national cluster highlights award nominees as finnish pioneers of the green transition. Biocluster Finland’s cluster network includes a wide range of companies, financiers and R&D organisations.
Contact information:
| Biocluster Finland: Anne Sormunen Cluster Manager +358 44 7591 038 anne.sormunen@biocluster.fi https://biocluster.fi/ | Elmery Oy: Mika Paalanne CEO mika.paalanne@elmery.fi https://elmery.fi/ | Nordtreat Oy: Veera Jehkonen Chief Marketing Officer +358 50 369 0435 veera.jehkonen@nordteat.com https://www.nordtreat.com/fi/ |