How did it all start?

The roots of NUTERIALS.

Maren called me up and was like, “Hey Carla, now that you also just quit your job, you don’t have any plans for Monday, right?”

She had just taken part in an ideation weekend where she teamed up with Marco, brainstorming how to tackle some of the world’s biggest problems, choosing plastic pollution and the over-use of fossil-based raw materials as her starting point.

What was supposed to be a short Monday coffee intro quickly turned into a full day of brainstorming. Since it was October (and nuts are great brain food), there were walnuts on the table. That’s when Maren and Marco’s science brains switched on: “Hey, these shells are sturdy and robust and actually, similar to wood but you don’t have to cut down the source and they are already readily available! Those shells are a great packaging material for the nuts - So how can we use that and turn it into something that makes sense, maybe even limiting the need for fossil-based raw materials?”

Well… that’s how it started.

We soon learned that nutshells are mostly unutilized and often just incinerated. Fast forward, and we found ourselves with a mission: upcycle this overlooked resource, give it a second life as a packaging material, and offer an alternative to fossil-based plastics.

From there, we started a 4-week sprint of market research, cooking nutshells into prototypes (or however you wanna call it) in the kitchen, and learning how to turn this crazy idea into a pitch investors could actually get behind. Why? Because we had just 4 weeks to compete with 4 other teams for a base investment.

After the final pitch, happy to have survived the nerves, excited to hear the other cool ideas, and a little relieved it was all over, we went back to our lives. Maren studying for her Danish test & getting prepped for job interviews, Marco settling into Copenhagen on a hunt for a bigger apartment, and Carla preparing for travels to South America.

And then the twist: Wednesday 1st of November 2023 4.16 pm. An email in the mailbox. Carla in the train to Germany excited for her adventurous hike in Patagonia. Maren ready to master her danish exam. Both quickly checking on their emails. NBV decided to give Nuterials a shot. Suddenly (but still a long process ;)), we found ourselves incorporating a company, fresh and ready in January 2024. Nuterials was officially born.

This post kicks off The Journey with Nuterials. We’ll share more about where we’ve come from, the ups and downs, and also dive into the broader world of biomaterials.

That vision turned into our mission and here we are now. With our MVP product in form of pellets, fitting in with existing production methods to make it available and scalable for companies and converters to use. 

Nuterials JECTO - our first material, with it’s woody and natural look, is ready to be ordered.