FarmInsect closes seven-figure seed investment round to build regional insect breeding facilities
Financing round enables transition to growth phase
FarmInsect has set itself the goal of making agriculture more sustainable with the help of insects. The startup enables farmers to produce protein-rich feed from regional residues using insect larvae. With the seven-figure financing round, led by High-Tech Gründerfonds and Bayern Kapital, FarmInsect aims to establish a production site for breeding larvae and larvae rearing facilities on-site to farmers. The round is also supported by 5x Ventures, Genea Invest, the Industrial Innovators Initiative, and notable business angels. The round was co-launched by BayStartUP.
FarmInsect
FarmInsect harnesses regional residues from agriculture and the food industry to feed black soldier fly larvae. The insect larvae serve as animal feed, replacing soy and fish meal as a sustainable and regional alternative. For farmers, FarmInsect’s rearing systems offer additional value-added potential while promoting regional circular economy, higher resource efficiency and significant CO2 savings.
The startup was founded by Technical University of Munich (TUM) graduates Thomas Kuehn, Wolfgang Westermeier and Andre Kloeckner with the vision of making agriculture – one of the largest contributors of CO2 emissions – more sustainable. The team combines entrepreneurial experience with in-depth knowledge in the fields of biology, agricultural engineering, automation and mechatronics.
We see ourselves as a partner to farmers to be able to produce regional and very sustainable protein feed for pigs, chickens and fish. Our goal is to replace fishmeal and soy to 100% with insect larvae. Thomas Kuehn, founder and managing director of FarmInsect
For this purpose, the protein rich larvae are raised directly on-site with the livestock where food residues are abundant, that would otherwise be considered as waste. The complex steps of laying eggs are managed through a regular supply of young larvae by FarmInsect, thus reducing the cost of heavy machinery and management of biological processes for farmers.
Financing round enables transition to growth phase
FarmInsect has been developing the process since 2019 at the TUM Venture Lab with their first pilot at a regional fish farmer. This year, the first insect rearing plants will be delivered to customers. To ensure the supply of young animals to the plants, part of the investment will be used to build a new, state-of-the-art egg-laying facility in the Munich area.
We see the use of local residues as feedstock for insects as a promising business model with enormous scaling potential. FarmInsect can thus already operate economically compared to the competition and make a noteworthy contribution to combating resource scarcity and climate change. Dr. Maximilian Bock, Investment Manager at High-Tech Gründerfonds
Insect feeds have the potential to become a crucial building block for sustainable, future-proof agriculture. FarmInsect has developed an important, innovative key technology for this, which is very attractive for farms throughout Germany and beyond. This makes FarmInsect an extremely exciting investment for us in the AgriTech sector. Dr. Georg Ried, Managing Director of Bayern Kapital
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