PaperShell secures €40.3M EU grant to build its first full-scale factory

This article was published on March 27, 2026 The Swedish deeptech company has signed a Grant Agreement with the European Commission under the EU Innovation Fund, unlocking €40.3M of a €83M project to expand its Tibro plant to 23,000 tonnes per year capacity by 2030. The material is already NATO-approved and shipping to customers in construction, defence, electronics and transport. PaperShell makes a composite that looks and sounds improbable on paper, which is apt, because it is essentially made of it. The Swedish company presses layers of kraft paper, impregnated with a bio-binder derived from agricultural waste streams, into load-bearing components that the company says are stronger than plastics, lighter than aluminium, and more versatile than glass fibre composites. Its pilot plant in Tibro, Sweden, has been running since 2023 and has shipped more than 150,000 components. The material is NATO-approved and is already in use across construction, electronics, defence, and transport. On Friday the company announced it has signed a Grant Agreement with the European Commission under the EU Innovation Fund, securing up to €40.3 million in grant financing. The grant is part of a €83 mi