The development of various renewable chemicals such as sustainable plastics or solvents from abundant renewable feedstocks has been limited by the complexity and efficiency of their production, as well as their lack of competitive properties. Here, I will discuss the direct integrated transformation of biomass into functionalized molecules that can notably be used as polymer, solvent or surfactant precursors at high yields (>80-90%). By acetalization with multi-functional aldehydes, we can produce hydrophilic or hydrophobic lignin fractions that can used as surfactants or bisphenol replacements in thermal paper formulations. We can similarly produce carbohydrate-based diacids and diols that can be used in polymer chemistry. Notably, melt polycondensation of a xylose-derived diester with a range of aliphatic diols or diamines led to high-molecular weight polyesters or polyamides, respectively. In both cases, materials with high performances were achieved (i.e. high glass transition temperatures with high strength and toughness) despite not using aromatic monomers. Similarly, we have replaced bisphenol A with a xylose-based diol in thermosets and achieved high performance materials that can be chemically recycled. These results suggest that a carbohydrate core can serve as a replacement for aromatic moieties (which are frequently toxic and are less accessible from natural feedstocks) in many high-performance applications. The production of these useful and high-performance chemicals by straightforward acid-catalyzed functionalization during biomass fractionation could drastically simplify the production of sustainable chemicals.