Finnish deep-tech start-up Elea & Lili raises 2.5 million euros for fossil-free superabsorbers

Finnish deep-tech startup Elea & Lili has raised 2.5 million euros in seed funding to bring a novel, biodegradable absorbent material to market maturity. In the long term, the technology could replace fossil superabsorbents, which are currently used in billions of diapers and in agricultural water storage products.

The financing was led by venture capital fund Lifeline Ventures. Other investors are Ikorni Invest Oy Ab and Baltiska Handels Sverige AB, which provide long-term capital with a focus on industrial and sustainability technologies.

The startup is a spin-off from the Finnish research institute VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, which has transferred the underlying technology and intellectual property to the newly founded company.

Replacement for fossil superabsorbents

Superabsorbent polymers (SAP) are key components of many everyday products. They are particularly common in disposable diapers, where they can absorb large quantities of liquid.

However, these materials have so far been based almost entirely on fossil raw materials. They are not biodegradable and contribute to both microplastic pollution and long-lasting plastic waste.

This is where Elea & Lili's technology comes in. The company is developing Cellulose Super Absorbent (CSA™), a cellulose-based material that is completely biodegradable and microplastic-free. At the same time, it should offer comparable absorption performance to conventional SAP materials and be compatible with existing production facilities.

This would allow manufacturers to make their products more sustainable without having to completely change their industrial processes.

Billion-dollar diaper market

The start-up's first target market is the hygiene industry.

According to estimates by the World Economic Forum, around 40 million tons of diaper waste are produced worldwide every year.

A single child uses an average of 4,000 to 6,000 diapers, and around 170 billion disposable diapers are produced worldwide every year.

The problem is that a key component of modern diapers is not biodegradable. As a result, some of the material remains in landfills or in the environment in the long term.

With CSA™, Elea & Lili wants to replace precisely this last fossil component.

Second growth market: agriculture

In addition to the hygiene industry, the start-up is targeting another large market: agricultural water storage solutions.

Here, too, superabsorbents are used to store water in the soil and supply plants during dry periods.

The polymers used today are also based on fossil materials. As they are incorporated directly into the soil, they remain in the soil permanently and contribute to the plastic pollution of agricultural land.

New European regulation could change this market in the future. With Commission Regulation (EU) 2023/2055, the EU plans to restrict certain persistent plastic components in the soil from 2028.

Elea & Lili's cellulose technology offers an alternative here that biodegrades and leaves no permanent plastic residue.

Biomaterial platform instead of individual product

Strategically, Elea & Lili is positioning itself not just as a material supplier, but as a biomaterial-based technology platform.

Hygiene and agriculture are two strategic entry markets for us. In both areas, absorbent materials are crucial components - and today they are fossil-based. We are replacing them with a scalable biomaterial.

Tatu Miettinen, Co-Founder and CEO Elea & Lili

In the long term, CSA™ could therefore also be used in other industries, such as medical applications, packaging solutions or environmental technologies.

Origin of the idea in personal experience

The idea for Elea & Lili was born back in 2017, when co-founder Tatu Miettinen became aware of the environmental impact of disposable diapers after the birth of his first child.

A formative experience followed two years later: the birth of his daughter Elea was medically complicated and required treatment on a neonatology ward.

According to Miettinen, this experience had a lasting effect on his perspective. It was during this time that he decided to set up a company that develops sustainable solutions for future generations.

Research from Finland as the basis

Technologically, the company is based on more than ten years of biomaterial research at VTT.

The patents and research results were transferred in full to the start-up, which is now driving forward the industrialization of the technology.

The team combines expertise from three areas:

• biomaterial science
• industrial scaling
• commercial market launch

In parallel, Elea & Lili is working with leading pulp and biomaterial companies to scale up production from pilot plants to industrial production.

Markets worth billions in upheaval

According to forecasts, the market for disposable diapers is set to reach a volume of around 141 billion US dollars by 2030.

The global market for superabsorbents is estimated to be worth around 13.2 billion US dollars in the same period.

At the same time, the pressure on manufacturers is growing:

• stricter environmental regulation
• increasing sustainability requirements from consumers
• increasing attention for microplastics

Elea & Lili sees this as a structural opportunity.

CEO Miettinen is deliberately ambitious in his wording:

"We are not developing a niche eco-product. We are replacing a global material category."

What the capital will be used for

The freshly raised 2.5 million euros will be used primarily in five areas:

• Scaling up the pilot production of CSA™
• Establishing industrial production partnerships
• Development of the first commercial diaper products
• Field tests in agriculture
• Expansion of the core team

Investor Timo Ahopelto, founding partner of Lifeline Ventures, also sees enormous potential in the technology.

He points out that a large proportion of the 170 billion diapers produced each year remain in soil or landfills in the long term - while at the same time food is grown on fields that are increasingly contaminated with microplastics.

A fossil-free alternative is therefore long overdue.