Paris-based Innovafeed bags €252M to build insect farms for high quality animal feed 

Paris-based Innovafeed, an insect-breeding (Hermetia Illucens) platform for animal and plant nutrition, announced on Tuesday that it has secured $250M (approximately €252M) in a Series D round of funding led by Qatar Investment Authority (QIA).

Other investors who participated in the round include Creadev, Temasek, ADM, Cargill, Future French Champions, ABC Impact, IDIA Capital Investissement, and Grow Forward. 

The latest funding round brings Innovafeed’s total raised capital to $450M (approximately €453M).

Fund utilisation

The French company says it will use the funds to increase the production capacity in its vertical insect farm in France (Nesle) and accelerate international expansion in the United States (Decatur, IL) by constructing a new production plant in partnership with agribusiness firm ADM. 

The company has appointed Maye Walraven, a French-American national, as its General Manager for North America, a newly created role. She previously served as Innovafeed’s vice president of business development.

“Our expansion in the United States is a critical step for our scale-up. It will enable us to access a deep source of feedstock and significantly increase our production capacity. I am very excited to be working closely with our local industrial partners, who are key contributors to accelerating the development of the entire industry and are supporting our momentum by their investment,” says Walraven.

Innovafeed says it has already secured commercial partnerships for more than €1B over the next ten years.

New COO

Besides the funding, the company also announced the appointment of Yves Amsellem as Innovafeed’s Chief Operating Officer. 

With more than 30 years of experience in end-to-end supply chains for international food & beverage and industrial groups, including Danone and Chromology, Yves will bring outstanding insights and proven capabilities to Innovafeed’s expansion plans.

“I am very pleased to join Innovafeed and be part of a key step for the company and its industry. Putting technology to work in an industrial process that recreates the natural ecosystem while significantly reducing its carbon footprint is a major asset in the years to come. Continued investment in technology and its deployment are exciting challenges to which I am fully committed,” says Yves Amsellem.

InnovoFeed: What you need to know

Founded by Aude Guo, Bastien Oggeri, Clement Ray, and Guillaume Gras in 2016, InnovaFeed is a biotech company that develops large-scale insect-breeding and processing processes. It sells ingredients derived from insects for animal nutrition and aquaculture in particular.

It valorises the insect entirely in a zero-waste logic, thereby producing organic fertiliser from insect frass. 

Combining the production capacity and research in biotechnology, InnovaFeed claims to have developed the technology and process enabling the production of high-quality insect meals at an industrial scale and at a competitive price.

Clément Ray, co-founder and CEO of Innovafeed, says, “At a time when conservation of our natural resources and the preservation of our environment are becoming an absolute necessity, we are convinced that the insect industry is a key solution for our planet’s food production needs. Our partners’ confidence in us through a new round of fundraising confirms this. Their support will allow us to accelerate our deployment in service of an ever healthier, natural, and sustainable food system.” 

Further, Innovafeed uses the waste energy of its industrial partners (previously dispersed into the atmosphere) to power the production site directly, avoiding the consumption of fossil fuels for production.

As a result, the company saves its suppliers approximately 120 GWh per year in transportation, which represents the annual energy consumption of more than 10,000 households.

Innovafeed also announced the creation of an Impact Committee to define and support its ESG strategy over the next three years. 

The committee will be chaired by Dr. Darian McBain, who is recognised for more than 20 years of sustainability work and was formerly the Global Director of Corporate Affairs and Sustainability for the seafood conglomerate Thai Union.

“I am proud to take on the Role of President of Innovafeed’s Impact Committee, an emerging company whose values and commitment to finding sustainable solutions to global food challenges I share. I believe that the insect industry will have a key role in building sustainable food systems and reducing our impact on climate change. I hope to contribute my sustainability expertise to enhance Innovafeed’s sustainability and ESG commitments and performance “, says Dr. McBain.