Nasekomo, the Bulgarian startup which increases the organic waste flow flows of the agro-industry in animal feeding by exploiting the power of fly larvae, has just announced that it has closed a € €4m investment. It is the biggest round announced public round in emerging Europe, in which the Bulgarian MORNINGSIDE HILL and New Vision 3 VC participate with a total of € €1.5 m, and are joined by around 20 international private investors.
“We will use current investment to further evolve our reproduction of insects and increase our protein production performance and our effectiveness in implementing robotic technology,” says Xavier Marceneac, who co -founded Nasekomo With Olga Marcenac and Marc Bolard three years ago, after the successful release of BPO Callpoint in Telus International. From the start, the company has managed to develop unique solutions for the insect farming market and currently transforms organic waste into protein for fish food and animal food and insect oil. In simple terms, the flies of specially high black soldiers are fed with organic waste, then transformed into different products used in pet food and potentially the cosmetics industry.
“Insects are part of the natural diet of many animal species. They now represent the opportunity to become a lasting solution to provide proteins that the world is consuming more and more. Instead of increasing the captures of wild fish in the oceans and deforestation to plant soybeans, we can feed insects with local agricultural by-products with extremely limited water consumption and produce high quality sustainable proteins for Fish, poultry, pigs and pets. This vertical agriculture in a local loop has clear environmental advantages and will strengthen greater resilience in the European food chain. Thus, our business model is not only profitable, but will have massive positive impacts on the company in the long term, ”explains Olga Marcenac.
The company that has already obtained its first € €1m investment in 2017, has already launched its first demonstration production installation, has its first customers across Europe and now aims to develop and evolve production. A patent for the EU is filed, and two others are on the way.
AI and robotation for more in -depth growth
The company has spent the last three years developing its breeds and also an evolving production technology. “We have robotics, AI and megadata that will allow us to effectively produce insect proteins. We will not only produce large volumes in a competitive way, but we also take up challenges in our world-related worlds, “says Marc Bolard, co-founder and technological manager. Currently, the company produces 500 tonnes of protein per year and meets the needs of European producers of hypoallergenic food for pets who sell in large markets such as Germany, Spain and France. “We are in a space where demand is higher than supply and we already have a pipeline of customers who are waiting for us to build installation on a larger scale and start to deliver the protein,” Xavier Marcenac tells us. According to him, there will be a request of 3 to 5 million tonnes of these proteins per year over the next ten years, and there are already several companies across Europe which build production facilities. In order to be able to quickly acquire market share, Nasekomo is now on the way to evolve production – the first installation on an industrial scale in Bulgaria is already on the way.
The investment will allow Nasekomo to develop its presence on the market and increase its productivity in deployment of robotics and data analysis. The company will also launch a new selective reproduction program in order to continuously improve the efficiency in the transformation of waste into insect products.
Investment in evolutionary sustainability
“In these difficult times, we believe that it is essential to invest and develop companies, which are certain key challenges of our society, namely climate change and sustainability of the food chain. In addition to its impact on sustainable development, the company offers an excellent investment opportunity, ”explains Pavel VelkovDirector Partner of the Senior Investor Morningsoide Hill Ventures. For VC Morningside, which is supported by the government fundraising fund, this is the first agreement since the fund was structured last year. Velkov and the team put € €1M in the company, waiting at least 5 to 10 times the return on investment. According to him, Nasekomo is an interesting investment opportunity not only because of protein production, but also the potential for license in its technology to other players in the region. “We are already in advanced negotiations with multinationals to deploy joint units in Europe and Asia, which will produce 100,000 tonnes aggregated by 2026,” explains Xavier Marcenac, co -founder.
The other participant VC in the agreement – New Vision 3Also comes from Bulgaria and is supported by the fundraising. The fund, which focuses on deep technological companies, maintains Nasekomo with € €500K, believing that its AI technology used for fly farming is a winning investment. “Nasekomo provides automated AI solutions to improve the sustainability of the agricultural sector, which has great potential in the region. By integrating robotization in insect agriculture, we put Bulgaria on the card of sustainable biotechnological innovation in the region and in the world, “explains Yordan Zarev, partner at NV3, in an official announcement. The rest of the current round is raised by private investors from all over Europe, explains Marcenac.
Ambitious plans during the next year
After having increased the largest tour at the start of the Agtech in emerging Europe, Nasekomo is preparing for a few main stages and also in another round. The company will expand its production capacity and must increase its team more more than 30 people adding AI specialists, biologists, but also production staff. In the meantime, the co-founders explore license and deductible opportunities and carry out tests for new products such as insect oil, which could be used in animal antibiotics. The scaling of the insect reproduction and regulatory framework which would allow them to enter new vertical foods on animals are among the challenges that the company is confronted and must meet.
In particular, in order to be able to grow quickly and serve the unsatisfied demand for protein on the market, Nasekomo will also have to increase his next round soon. “To finance our ambitious plans, we must raise more € €15m this year or the next one, ”explains the co-founder Xavier Marcenac.
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