Global investments and tech innovation in insect protein
Spanish biotechnology firm Tebrio has closed a €30m (US$32.4m) funding round to accelerate its production expansion. This investment follows the announcement from Canada’s Entosystem earlier this month that it had secured CAD $58m to support the construction of a second commercial facility.
Meanwhile, UK insect farming technology specialist, Entocycle, reports on trial work it conducted with US based EnviroFlight, a Darling Ingredients owned company.
Tebrio’s expansion plans with new funding
Salamanca-based Tebrio, a mealworm-based ingredients producer, recently secured €30m in funding from a raft of investors including Banco de Santander, Sodical Instituto Financiero de Castilla y León, GCP, and the CDTI Innvierte Economía Sostenible.
The investment combines venture debt and private equity, which will enable Tebrio to expedite the construction of a new 90,000-square-meter production facility capable of producing over 100,000 tons of products annually.
Adriana Casillas, CEO and co-founder of Tebrio, commented on the financing: “This new round of investment in our company validates our industrial model based on proprietary technology. That model allows us to produce at competitive prices in the markets where we operate, thus serving as a platform to expand our operations to different geographic markets.”
Founded in 2014, Tebrio currently operates a 3,500-square-meter facility, producing mealworm-derived protein, fat, biofertilizer, and chitosan. The company also plans to triple its workforce over the next two years as it scales up production to meet growing global demand for sustainable protein sources.
Entosystem expanding
Earlier this month, Canada’s Entosystem announced that Idealist Capital, Sanimax, and Fondaction had collectively invested CAD $58m to support the Black Solider Fly (BSF) producer’s expansion, namely the building of a second commercial production site.
Entosystem’s existing Drummondville plant in Quebec processes 90,000 tons of organic waste annually, yielding 5,000 tons of protein meal and 15,000 tons of organic-certified fertilizer.
The new facility in development will address the rising demand for sustainable proteins and organic fertilizers, reported the producer.
EnviroFlight and Entocycle dosing technology trials
In North Carolina, EnviroFlight recently trialed the Entosight Neo optical dosing solution from Entocycle at its R&D center.
Entocycle’s technology, designed to enhance production efficiency for BSF larvae, uses high-speed cameras to accurately count and dose neonates in real time. This precision is expected to optimize feedstock use and improve feed conversion efficiency, critical metrics for the sustainability-focused insect industry.
Liz Koutsos, president of EnviroFlight, noted the advantages of the technology, saying the results demonstrated a “substantial improvement” in dosing accuracy.
The trial, conducted across 24 doses in four tests, showed the technology’s high accuracy with a mean absolute percentage error of 4.52%, while maintaining high neonate survival rates, thereby validating the system’s effectiveness in commercial settings, said the UK innovator.
The inside view: What does the future hold for the global insect industry?
Accuracy at the beginning of production leads to consistent quality and quantity for producers, according to Entocycle’s managing director, Matt Simmonds.
Sul Handuleh, Entocycle’s head of new product development, reported that Entosight Neo’s real-time analytics component optimizes production protocols by using machine vision to count each insect entering breeding and production processes. “This precise tracking ensures consistent population densities and enables fine-tuning of feed-to-larvae ratios, optimizing feed use and improving batch consistency,” he explained.
The real-time monitoring also allows for early detection of upstream issues, enabling immediate interventions to prevent disruptions and safeguard yield quality. “These insights collectively enhance operational efficiency, reduce waste, and support scalable production.”
As the collaboration progresses, the companies are exploring ways to integrate Entosight Neo’s capabilities more broadly within EnviroFlight’s operations, said Jude Bliss, marketing director, Entocycle.
link
