A
French insect-farming company has just raised another $15.2 million, bringing
its total to $37 million.
Founded
in 2011 by Alexis Angot, Fabrice Berro, Antoine Hubert and Jean Gabriel Levon,
Ynsect is an innovation company which farms to make animal feed.
The company says "in the longer term, (it aims for) human nutrition markets too."
The
company employs a multi-disciplinary team of researchers and patented
technologies to achieve its “visionary idea: placing insect-derived protein at
the heart of the agri-food system to sustainably address the growing global
demand for meat and fish.”
The
company has designed proprietary technology to farm mealworm larvae, as well as
other insects.
Automation
and machine-learning software are connected to sensors embedded in the farm to
keep growing conditions ideal.
Antoine
Hubert and the team will use the new $15.2-million investment to increase
capacity at Ynsect’s pilot centre in Jura, France, and to begin preparatory
engineering work on the world’s largest insect unit that will have the capacity
to produce at least 20,000 metric tons of insect protein a year.
The
company’s initial focus has been on early-adopter fish feed and pet food
companies, for whom the superior quality and 72 per cent protein content of
Ynsect’s TMP – which is the same protein level as that of the highest-grade
fish meal – is a major selling point.
Once
Ynsect’s new unit begins production, the team expects several large animal feed
players to become customers.
“The
four of us started the company because we wanted to improve a global food
system that is unsustainable and leading to a host of undesired impacts,
including growing greenhouse gas emissions, the collapse in oceanic
biodiversity and anxieties over food safety and security,” says Antoine Hubert.
