Paris-based Innovafeed secures €51 million to scale sustainable insect-based ingredients for animal and plant nutrition

Innovafeed, a Paris-based BioTech startup producing functional and sustainable insect-based ingredients for animal nutrition, pet food and agriculture, has entered a new development phase backed by a €51 million funding round secured largely from its financial partners.

The company has received support from its historical shareholders, notably Creadev, QIA, Temasek, FFC, ABC Impact, and ADM, as well as its banking partners. It has also announced the completion of its industrialisation phase and a reorganisation of its activities around the Nesle site, now focused on the commercial development of its product ranges. 

Clément Ray, CEO and cofounder of Innovafeed, said, “Since day one, we have carried a dual ambition: to demonstrate that we can produce high-performing, competitive, and sustainable ingredients for nutrition without relying on the intensive exploitation of marine resources; and that it is possible to build an innovative industrial project in France. 

“The successful scale-up of our industrial model marks a major milestone for Innovafeed today and opens up a new phase of commercial deployment. Innovafeed is now focusing its efforts on accelerating the development of value chains for its ingredients, capturing the full value of their multiple functional properties improving animal health and growth, which have been validated and proven for ten years now.”

Founded in 2016 by Aude Guo, Bastien Oggeri, and Clément Ray, Innovafeed develops a technology to rear and transform the Hermetia illucens fly (Black soldier fly) for animal and plant nutrition, thus offering alternatives to the fishmeal and vegetable oils used in fish and animal feed.

The company states that its unique technology makes it possible to reproduce the natural cycle of the insect on a large scale under controlled and optimised conditions. It uses 3,000 sensors to optimise at any time the breeding conditions of larvae. It also uses AI to limit human intervention in the breeding process: robots automatically collect and count the 20,000 eggs laid every second. Innovafeed thus intends to put the insect back at the heart of the food chain.

Innovafeed has also created a proprietary industrial process that transforms larvae using a wet method, ensuring high product quality, especially in digestibility.

The company’s last funding round was in 2022, where it raised €250 million in a Series D financing round led by Qatar Investment Authority (QIA). Since then, the company has achieved three major milestones: its Nesle production unit is now fully operational. In three years, it has produced over 15,000 tons of protein and oil; production volumes have increased tenfold, while production costs have been divided by seven. 

It also witnessed strong commercial traction: revenues have doubled each year, driven by structured partnerships with clients. Lastly, it claims to have demonstrated environmental impact because of the circularity of its industrial symbiosis model; its products deliver a 70–90% reduction in carbon emissions compared with conventional products.

The company states that following a phase of R&D and industrial development that achieved key operational maturity milestones, it is entering a new stage of growth. In this context, it is initiating a reorganisation of its activities, specifically the reduction of zootechnical R&D activities and their integration from its historical Gouzeaucourt site into the Nesle facility. A project to reduce 60 positions is planned, two-thirds of which will affect the Gouzeaucourt site.

“Over the past five years, Innovafeed has won its industrial bet and developed a world-unique asset: a fully operational large-scale production facility that enables highly optimised production of ingredients with functional properties that are valued by pet food and aquaculture players,” said Bénédicte Monpert, Food Managing Director at Creadev. 

In its new phase of development, the company will redirect its investments towards commercial deployment and operational excellence. The new financing operation will specifically enable Innovafeed to accelerate the commercial development of the Hilucia ranges, particularly in the functional segments of aquaculture and pet food, to invest in industrial equipment and processes to develop new offerings and applications, and to optimise the industrial asset base to increase the performance and capacity of the production lines.

“We must also adapt our organisation to this new phase by reducing industrial and zootechnical R&D activities, while continuing to invest alongside our customers to demonstrate functionalities and performance of our products. The talents who made up our R&D and industrial teams enabled us to reach unprecedented milestones in the sector. While we must take demanding measures to adjust our organisation to this new phase, we are deeply committed to recognising the dedication of our teams over the past years and to implementing this transformation plan responsibly, in full respect of social dialogue and in close connection with local authorities,” Ray added.

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