The demand of specialty chemicals, i.e., those compounds designed to perform a specific function rather than to serve chiefly as raw materials, has rapidly grown in the last two decades, and it is believed that this growth will continue with the same intensity in the next years. C₁-chemistry, which has been developed in the same period mainly to the production of commodity chemicals, has shown a remarkable potential for the preparation of several categories of speciality chemicals. In particular, the use of synthesis gas as starting material in fine chemistry is expected to be adequately exploited by the industry. Amino acids and peptides, 2-arylpropanoic acids, dicarboxylic acids, amines, heterocycles compounds are currently accessible in good-to-high yields through hydroformylation, hydrocarboxylation, alkoxy-carbonylation, oxo-amination and other types of carbonylation processes, catalyzed by transition metal complexes, of selected olefinic substrates. The asymmetric hydroformylation and other selected reactions are going to reach the stage of maturity and hence to contribute in solving many troublesome synthetic problems connected with the preparation of biologically active enantiomerically pure compounds.