CH-Bioforce, a Finnish company founded in 2016, has a process it calls BIOFORSENSE that separates plant waste such as oat husks, straw and wood chips into its three main components: cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. It sells them as ingredients, mainly for cosmetics, from a pilot plant in Raisio in south-west Finland.
In June 2022 the company announced that the European Innovation Council would give it up to €15 million, grant and equity combined, to build its first industrial-size plant in Raisio, with construction planned for 2024. Four years later no Horizon Europe grant agreement for the project appears on CORDIS and no EIC Fund investment has been announced. The company's own 2026 timeline plans a small plant of 225 tonnes a year for 2026 and its first mid-scale plant for 2029. In the year to May 2025 its revenue was €33,000.
Company file
- Legal entity
- CH-Bioforce Oy, business ID 2739534-8
- Founded
- 2016
- CEO in 2022
- Petri Tolonen
- Site
- R&D and pilot plant, Smart Chemistry Park, Raisio
- Products
- LIGNENSE (lignin), XYLENSE (hemicellulose), CELLENSE (cellulose)
- Staff
- Ten
- EIC award
- CHBPLANT, March 2022 cut-off, blended finance, up to €15M
- Other EU project
- Associated partner in SEED (Horizon Europe)
Where CH-Bioforce Stands Today
The company's 2026 news is about cosmetics. In January 2026 it announced COSMOS certification for its lignin and hemicellulose ingredients, made from Finnish oat husks, and in June 2026 it was one of 15 companies chosen by the EIC to exhibit at GITEX AI Europe. It still describes Raisio as its "R&D and pilot plant" and gives its workforce as ten. The engineering firm Elomatic, which works on the scale-up, describes an expansion "roughly 10 times larger than the first" pilot, scheduled for completion in September 2026.
The Technology: Splitting Biomass Three Ways
CH-Bioforce says its process fractionates all three main components gently enough to keep them as polymers. Its 2026 company presentation, published by the Finnish university HAMK, says the pilot plant runs one tonne per batch and lists customer cases in which its ingredients "fully replaced (100%)" microplastics in a customer's cosmetics and raised dietary fibre in beverages by 140%; those figures are the company's own.
"EIC Accelerator funding is a major achievement for us. Our business plan has been carefully reviewed and approved, which will also help us obtain other financing."
Petri Tolonen, CEO, CH-Bioforce, June 2022What the EIC Award Promised, and What the Record Shows
CHBPLANT was described as "CH-Bioforce first-of-its-kind production plant". In June 2022 the company said the final amount and form of the EIC support would be settled as the project progressed. We found no grant agreement for it among Horizon Europe projects on CORDIS, where CH-Bioforce appears only as an associated partner in another consortium, and no EIC Fund investment. Its 2026 timeline no longer mentions a 2024 industrial plant: it moves from "continuous development" of the pilot in 2020 to 2025, to a 225-tonne plant in 2026 and a 20,000-tonne plant in 2029.
- Industrial plant built in 2024MissedNot built; mid-scale plant now 2029.
- EIC grant signedNot foundNo CORDIS project.
- Certified productsDeliveredCOSMOS, January 2026.
- Revenue growthMissed€33K in FY 2025.
What Has Happened Since the Award
The Money
The filed accounts summarised by Asiakastieto show revenue of €212,000 in the year to May 2022, falling to €33,000 in the year to May 2025, while the operating loss grew from €1.39 million to €1.79 million. The equity ratio at May 2025 was minus 221%, meaning debts exceeded assets. The company's staff stayed at ten throughout. The Finnish chemistry company Chemec has been an investor since 2016, according to Elomatic; no other funding round has been announced.
What cannot be checked
Whether any EIC money was paid, why the plant project did not proceed as announced, and how the 2026 plant is financed are not public.
Why Europe Should Care
The EIC selected CH-Bioforce for up to €15 million to put a new kind of biorefinery on the ground in Finland by 2024. The public record shows no signed grant, no plant and a company with negative equity. Neither the EIC nor the company has published what became of the award.
What the award promised
A first-of-its-kind production plant in Raisio, built in 2024 with up to €15M of EIC support.
What the record shows
No EIC grant on CORDIS, a small plant due in 2026, a mid-scale plant planned for 2029 and €33,000 of revenue.
The Verdict
Selected, not built
CH-Bioforce's technology works at pilot scale and its ingredients are certified for cosmetics. The plant the EIC selected it to build has not been built, the EU's records show no project, and the company's finances have weakened.
CH-Bioforce has not been asked for comment for this article. It is based entirely on company statements, Finnish company data and EU records, linked throughout.
