Ag-tech innovator Ÿnsect has raised £125 million in Series C funding to scale up production and building the “world’s biggest” insect farm in Northern France.
The funding will also be used to help the business expand international with an emphasis on the North American market.
The finance round, which was backed by established international funds, is the largest-ever ag-tech funding deal outside of the US demonstrating the growing global interest in the nascent insect sector.
Ÿnsect was co-founded in 2011 by CEO Antoine Hubert, Jean-Gabriel Levon, Alexis Angot and Fabrice Berro, with the aim of becoming the global leader in the market for alternative protein sources.
At capacity, Ÿnsect’s largest farm to date will produce around 20,000 tons of protein annually.
Premium nutrition
With global demand for premium proteins booming, Ÿnsect farms insects to make high-quality natural ingredients for aquaculture, pet food and plants, while developing an industrial-scale solution attuned to natural ecosystems.
Aquaculture plays a critical role in human nutrition, growing faster than any other protein source for human consumption.
Around half of the fish we eat today comes from farmed sources. Yet fishmeal, the primary food source for farmed fish, is in crisis because it’s derived from fast-depleting ocean fish stocks.
As part of their natural diet, wild fish and crustaceans eat insects, which deliver an important source of high-quality protein and polyunsaturated fats.
While competitors chose to farm other commodity-driven insects and microorganism species, Ÿnsect says it has doubled-down on the Molitor; small common beetles known as mealworms.
“Ÿnsect is becoming the world’s largest insect producer, whatever the species, thanks to our unique highly scalable and pioneering technology,” says Hubert.
“Enabled by deep tech, the entire production process – from feeding to controlling the health and welfare of our insects, and from the sensors used for quality control to harvesting mature insects – is automated.
“We have 25 patents covering our technology, the products themselves and their different applications, giving Ÿnsect the world’s largest insect patent portfolio. But ultimately, we need scale to have a significant impact globally, which this investment will allow us to achieve.”
