Innovafeed Raises $54.6M for Insect-Based Feed Ingredients

Jan de Vries · 2026-06-05

Innovafeed, a Paris-based biotech company, just closed a $54.6 million funding round to scale its sustainable insect-based ingredients for animal feed, pet food, and agriculture. The round was backed mostly by existing financial partners, signaling strong confidence in their technology. ### The Funding Details The company got support from its long-time shareholders, including Creadev, QIA, Temasek, FFC, ABC Impact, and ADM, along with its banking partners. This new cash comes as Innovafeed wraps up its industrialization phase and reorganizes around its Nesle production site. The focus now? Commercial growth.  ### What the CEO Says Clément Ray, CEO and co-founder, put it this way: "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." He added that the successful scale-up of their industrial model opens a new phase of commercial deployment. Innovafeed is now pushing to accelerate value chains for its ingredients, capturing the full value of their functional properties that improve animal health and growth. ### How It Works Founded in 2016 by Aude Guo, Bastien Oggeri, and Clément Ray, Innovafeed raises and processes the black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens) for animal and plant nutrition. This offers a real alternative to fishmeal and vegetable oils used in feed. The company's tech is pretty wild. They use 3,000 sensors to constantly optimize breeding conditions for the larvae. Plus, AI helps limit human intervention: robots automatically collect and count the 20,000 eggs laid every second. The goal is to put insects back at the center of the food chain. ### Key Milestones Innovafeed's last big round was in 2022, when they raised $272 million in Series D funding led by QIA. Since then, they've hit three major milestones: - Their Nesle production unit is fully operational, producing over 16.5 million pounds of protein and oil in three years. - Production volumes have increased tenfold, while costs dropped by seven times. - Revenues have doubled each year, thanks to structured client partnerships. They also claim a 70-90% reduction in carbon emissions compared to conventional products, thanks to their circular industrial symbiosis model. ### Reorganization and Job Changes As Innovafeed moves from R&D to commercial scale, they're reorganizing. They're cutting zootechnical R&D activities and integrating them from their Gouzeaucourt site into Nesle. About 60 positions are being reduced, with two-thirds affecting Gouzeaucourt. Bénédicte Monpert, Food Managing Director at Creadev, noted: "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." ### What's Next In this new phase, Innovafeed will redirect its investment toward commercial deployment and product development. They're betting big that insect-based ingredients can become a mainstream solution for sustainable animal nutrition. And with this fresh $54.6 million, they've got the fuel to prove it.