Investors’ appetite for insect farming is undeniable. InnovaFeed bears witness to this, with a new fundraising of 250 million euros. The operation, announced on Tuesday September 20, brings to 450 million euros the total amount collected by this French foodtech created in 2016. The challenge: to continue to clear a new playground in the agro-industrial world, that of rearing of the black soldier fly, otherwise known as Hermetia illucens.
To deploy the wings of its insect protein production on French territory, InnovaFeed has chosen to set up in Nesle, in the Somme. The plant was inaugurated almost two years ago, in the second half of 2020. “We are in the ramp-up phase. Our target objective, set for 2024, is to reach a production of 100,000 tonnes of ingredients, including 15,000 tonnes of protein. We have already invested 50 million euros on this site, and we are going to double the bet”explains Clément Ray, co-founder.
At the inauguration, he mentioned a turnover target of between 30 million and 50 million euros in 2022. “ He is [aujourd’hui] below this range”, reacts Mr. Ray, without further details. He prefers to mention the billion euros in contracts negotiated over ten years with his major clients. Following the example of the Americans ADM and Cargill, who wish to integrate this insect protein into animal feed, whether to feed pigs, fish or dogs and cats.
Human food
Precisely, ADM and Cargill are part of the new round table of foodtech, even if their investment remains limited, the two combined weighing less than 5% of the capital. If this new fundraising was led by QIA, Qatar’s sovereign fund, it also interested historical investors of InnovaFeed, such as the Singapore sovereign fund, Temasek, or Creadev, the investment company of the Mulliez family. . This new money should promote the deployment of production in France, but also in the United States, where the construction of a site should start at the end of 2022, in partnership with ADM.
“We also need to invest heavily in technology. In our workforce of 400 people, there are many engineers, and we have filed around twenty patents”, says Mr. Ray. The teams are currently working on introducing black soldier fly protein to the plates of European consumers. In early 2022, the company submitted an application for marketing authorization for human food to the European Food Safety Authority.
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