Innovafeed Raises $55M to Scale Insect-Based Ingredients

Jan de Vries · 2026-06-05

Innovafeed, a Paris-based biotech startup that turns insects into sustainable animal feed and pet food ingredients, just hit a major milestone. The company has secured about $55 million (converted from 51 million euros) in fresh funding, mostly from its existing financial partners. This cash injection marks the end of Innovafeed's industrial build-out phase and the start of a new chapter focused on commercial growth. The company is restructuring around its Nesle production site, which is now fully operational. ### A Big Bet on Bug-Based Nutrition Innovafeed isn't new to the game. Founded in 2016 by Aude Guo, Bastien Oggeri, and Clement Ray, the company has spent nearly a decade perfecting its technology. They raise black soldier flies (Hermetia illucens) and turn the larvae into protein and oil for fish feed, pet food, and even plant nutrition. The idea is simple but powerful: instead of relying on fishmeal from overfished oceans or vegetable oils from resource-heavy crops, Innovafeed offers a circular, low-impact alternative. Their facility uses around 3,000 sensors to monitor and tweak the breeding environment constantly. AI-powered robots collect and count the roughly 20,000 eggs laid every second, minimizing human touchpoints. The company calls this "putting the insect back at the heart of the food chain."  ### From Lab to Large Scale Innovafeed's last big funding round was in 2022, when it raised $272 million (250 million euros at the time) in a Series D round led by the Qatar Investment Authority. Since then, the company has hit some impressive goals: - The Nesle production unit is fully up and running. - Over the past three years, they've produced more than 15,000 tons of protein and oil. - Production volumes have increased tenfold, while costs dropped by a factor of seven. - Revenue has doubled every year, thanks to structured client partnerships. CEO and cofounder Clement Ray said, "The successful scale-up of our industrial model marks a major milestone for Innovafeed today and opens up a new phase of commercial deployment." ### Environmental Impact That Matters One of the most compelling parts of Innovafeed's story is its environmental footprint. The company claims its products deliver a 70 to 90 percent reduction in carbon emissions compared to conventional alternatives like fishmeal and vegetable oils. That's because the whole process is built on circularity: the insects are fed on food industry byproducts, and the waste becomes fertilizer. This isn't just greenwashing. Major investors like Creadev, QIA, Temasek, and ADM have backed the company through multiple rounds. Benidicte Monpert, Food Managing Director at Creadev, said, "Over the past five years, Innovafeed has won its industrial bet and developed a world-unique asset: a fully operational large-scale production facility." ### What's Next for Innovafeed? Now that the industrial phase is behind them, Innovafeed is shifting gears. The company plans to focus on commercial deployment, accelerating value chains for its ingredients. That means getting their products into more pet food bowls and fish farms. But there's a tough side to this transition. Innovafeed is reorganizing its R&D activities, moving them from the historic Gouzeaucourt site to the Nesle facility. This will mean cutting about 60 positions, with two-thirds of those layoffs at the Gouzeaucourt site. It's a reminder that even successful startups have to make hard decisions to stay lean and focused. ### The Bigger Picture for European Biotech Innovafeed's journey is a case study in how European biotech can scale. The company has shown that you can build a high-tech industrial facility in France and compete globally. With this new funding, they're poised to prove that insect-based ingredients aren't just a niche experiment but a real solution for sustainable agriculture. For anyone watching the EU Inc space, this is a company to keep an eye on. They've got the technology, the investors, and now the commercial momentum. If they can keep costs dropping and revenues climbing, they might just change what's on your pet's dinner plate.