Agtech startup FarmInsect has successfully raised a Series A financing round of € 8 million led by Sandwater. Also joined Bayern Kapital, Minderoo Foundation and the EIC Fund. The Munich-based company has developed an automated fattening system that allows farmers to manufacture protein-rich animal feed from insect larvae on their own farm. This means that they no longer need to import expensive, environmentally-unfriendly feeds such as soy and fishmeal. FarmInsect plans to use its fresh capital to expand its sales activities and increase its production capacity to its maximum load at the company’s current production facility for young larvae.
FarmInsect GmbH, which has its registered office in Bergkirchen near Munich, was established in 2019 by serial entrepreneurs Wolfgang Westermeier and Thomas Kuehn with the goal of making agricultural animal feed production more sustainable. As one of the world’s largest CO2 emitters, agriculture accounts for a significant portion of ongoing climate change. There is a particular focus on conventional components used in animal feed such as soy and fishmeal: The expansion of soy cropland requires the clearing of extensive rainforest areas, while the overfishing of the oceans changes the natural makeup of the entire ecosystem.
Thomas Kuehn, Founder and CEO of FarmInsect,said: “We are very grateful for the trust that our investors have placed in us. Together we will pursue our ambitious goal to fully replace soy and fishmeal in the EU with our sustainable closed-loop model. In the next step, we plan to intensify our R&D activities in order to decisively expand the current breeding lines. A further goal is to open an additional production facility.”
Bayern Kapital took its first stake in FarmInsect in the summer of 2021 and is now expanding its investment using funds from the Wachstumsfonds Bayern 2.
Monika Steger, Managing Director of Bayern Kapital, commented: “One thing was clear to us even with our first stake around two years ago: Insect-based feed is a key part of the puzzle for sustainable and future-proof agriculture. FarmInsect’s experienced team developed the company in a very positive way, installed the first customer systems and opened a new production site. We are highly satisfied with the collaboration to date and see a lot of potential for the future.”
Inspired by the EU’s approval of insects as feed for livestock in 2017, food and agritech specialists Westermeier and Kuehn developed the concept for FarmInsect in order to replace the importing of soy and fishmeal with an environmentally sound alternative. The approach centres on the young larvae of the black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens), which the company breeds at its production site and which it delivers to agricultural operations on a weekly basis. Farmers then can fatten up the young larvae with regional side streams, such as peels or harvest residues, by using an automated fattening system that has been developed by FarmInsect.
This “circular economy” system produces high-quality protein feed that can be produced directly on the farm more cheaply, with lower CO2 emissions and independently of global supply chains. The fattening system also produces compost as a by-product, which can be used either to fertilise the farmer’s own field, in a biogas plant to replace corn or sold as high-quality fertiliser following special heat treatment. Overall, FarmInsect allows agricultural companies to make feed cost savings of up to 30%. Each step in the process is monitored by an interactive IT platform that guides the farmer through production step by step.
