The company announced in October that it had raised $3 million from angel investors in a seed funding round to help it reach commercial scale.
We spoke to Arseniy Olkhovskiy, founder and CEO of the Black Soldier Fly (BSF) origins protein, fats and fertilizer maker, to learn more about the company’s near- and long-term ambitions.
South Vietnam will be the site of Flyfeed’s first commercial BSF factory, which will be a data-driven, state-of-the-art vertical farming operation. The nearby port of Saigon allows for uninterrupted worldwide shipping. “We intend to complete construction of our 15,000 square foot facility in 2023. The capacity of this plant will be 17,500 tons of insect products per year.”
The company will sell the fertilizer product locally, but the protein and fat components will have a much wider reach, including the European feed market, he said.
According to Olkhovskiy, insect protein companies are attracted to Asia as a location not only because of the lower investment costs in setting up operations, but also because of the abundant food waste that can be used as feedstock.
“It is crucial for insect farms to have good access to raw material sources and plant substrates that, according to European regulations, can be used as feed for insect larvae while still performing well in terms of insect growth rates. Asia, with its highly developed agriculture but underdeveloped food processing industry, offers a great opportunity for insect protein companies to scale up.”
Flyfeed plans to use either grain or by-products of fruit and vegetable processing as feed for its larvae. “It was unexpectedly easy for us to get support from local Vietnamese officials to set up our facility as we offer an environmentally friendly and sustainable waste processing solution.”
expert advice
The Estonian company’s Advisory Board consists of over 35 experts and its CTO is Dr. Nathalie Berezina, who used to work for the French mealworm producer Ÿnsect.
The development team of the startup consists of experts in biotechnology and computer science. In addition, Flyfeed has worked with engineers both internally and externally, most notably Christof Global Impact. It has also tested different growing media with lab partners.
In addition, the Flyfeed team has been in dialogue with the feed industry for the past 12 months. The CEO said the company has now signed memoranda of understanding with a number of leading European feed manufacturers on the basis that its BSF-derived products will be offered at competitive prices and that its technology has been designed to be compliant with EU regulations.
He expects Flyfeed to produce the cheapest insect protein for animal feed in 10 factories worldwide by 2026, and in 2027 the CEO expects to start human food production.
