Innovafeed installs its first laboratories in the research center of the Génopole in Evry to define its main strategic axes and carry out its first R&D tests and optimize the production cycle of insects.
In 2016 Aude Guo, Bastien Oggeri, and Clément Ray created Innovafeed to contribute to the construction of tomorrow’s sustainable food system. To do so, they choose to develop a unique and pioneering technology to rear and transform the Hermetia illucens fly for animal and plant nutrition, thus offering alternatives to the fishmeal and vegetable oils used in fish and animal feed.
9 years later, Innovafeed represents:
The largest insect production capacity in the world with 3 production sites in operation, including one Innovation Center in Decatur, Illinois, United States.
Innovafeed installs its first laboratories in the research center of the Génopole in Evry to define its main strategic axes and carry out its first R&D tests and optimize the production cycle of insects.
Gouzeaucourt is an industrial showcase for Innovafeed meeting the highest quality standards (GMP+). This modular production site allows Innovafeed to design its unique technology, to refine its processes & tools, and to optimize the quality of its products – allowing Innovafeed to offer premium products with proven performance in farms.
Innovafeed completes a fund raising secureing €15 million from AlterEquity3P, Finovam Gestion, Nord Création (IRD Group), Nord France Amorçage (fund managed by SIPAREX) and several entrepreneurs, for its commercial acceleration and the deployment of a second production unit offering a 10 times higher capacity.
With more than 55M€ of financing secured over 2018, including a series A fundraising round in February, Innovafeed confirms its ambition to turn the production of insects for farmed fish feed into a promising agro-industrial sector. The support of these world-class investment funds allows Innovafeed to accelerate its development.
Innovafeed and Auchan federate a whole value chain – Skretting, Trout Service and Mister GoodFish – to launch together the first “fed with insect protein” trout in the world, available in Auchan stores in Northern France.
50% of fishmeal present in the trout feed is replaced by Innovafeed’s insect protein for a tasty and responsible trout.
Cargill and Innovafeed form a strategic partnership to provide new ingredients to the animal nutrition industry. Cargill and Innovafeed will propose new fish feed offerings that include insect protein, providing a solution to support the growth of aquaculture in a sustainable manner.
This partnership results in the implementation of an ambitious joint R&D program and the marketing of a 100% natural and sustainable fertilizer developed from insect frass produced on Innovafeed’s production sites. Through this partnership, Innovafeed and Hello Nature work together to build one of the pillars of tomorrow’s plant nutrition.
Insect-derived ingredients flourish as customers continue to favor more natural and sustainable animal nutrition. Thanks to the ambition of an entire value chain, a new step is taken: for the first time, consumers will be able to enjoy a chicken whose feed is enriched with insect oil. Available in Auchan stores in Northern France, the marketing of these poultry products represent the commitment of the industry and once again demonstrates the potential of insects.
Innovafeed uses its expertise in insect rearing to help the World Mosquito Program (WMP) design their large-scale mosquito production facilities, as part of a scientific program to combat dengue fever. A world premiere that brings together a non-profit organization and the world leader in insect rearing around a crucial public health issue.
Innovafeed starts up its industrial production unit in Nesle, the largest production unit in operation in the world, with an unprecedented capacity of 15,000 tons of insect protein per year and which will eventually feed every year 400,000 tons of fish, poultry and pigs. On this site, more than 20,000 eggs are injected per second with a total rearing surface of 25,000m².
Innovafeed announces the signature of a partnership with ADM (Archer-Daniels-Midland Company), a leader in agribusiness, to deploy its industrial model on the largest American agricultural site, Decatur (Illinois, USA). The construction of the site will begin end of 2022, with a target capacity of 60,000 tons of insect protein per year.
A new fund raising of 140 million euros bringing the total financing of Innovafeed to 200 million euros to accelerate its development in France and abroad.
This fund raising reflects the industrial successes achieved since 2018 and the renewed trust of Innovafeed’s shareholders, Creadev and Temasek, who have supported Innovafeed’s project and ambition for the industry from the beginning.
Innovafeed and Auchan Retail strengthens their strategic alliance and committing to a new responsible value chain: a local and responsible swine product with a reduced carbon impact.
The alliance of two local value chains in the North of France, thant are committed to animal welfare and protecting the environment, by integrating the insect oil produced by Innovafeed into the feed of pigs reared by Porcilin and sold in Auchan stores in the North of France.
Cargill and Innovafeed are expanding their strategic partnership beyond aquaculture nutrition through a commercial contract, starting with the use of insect oil for pig feed. This expanded partnership will benefit more than 20 million piglets by 2026 and demonstrates the strategic role the insect industry can play in transforming the global food model into a more sustainable feed industry.
Innovafeed joins forces with Lidl and Earthworm to provide concrete solutions and reduce our dependence on imported soybeans. Less than a year after the launch of this working group, no less than 4 value chains – poultry, egg, pork and milk – are scheduled for commercialization in autumn 2021, thanks to the commitment of leaders of the industry Metex Nøøvistago, Novial Animal Nutrition, Noriap and the Hauts-de-France Chamber of Agriculture.
Launch of the Millennial Salmon project led by Nofima and European leaders Innovafeed, Corbion, Cargill, SINTEF and Auchan France, to bring to life their shared vision for the future of aquaculture and develop the most sustainable salmon of the future.
This 4-year research project will study the use of alternative and innovative ingredients derived from insects and algae. More nutritious and perfectly suited to salmon feed, they use fewer resources, emit less carbon dioxide and protect biodiversity.
Following five years of solid growth and key partnerships with global animal feed providers, Innovafeed’s expansion into the U.S. market comes at a time when the industry is ripe for insect protein adoption.
The partnership with ADM follows recent U.S. regulation allowing the use of black soldier fly (BSF) in food for dogs, while also pioneering the commercialization of high-quality insect ingredients in this market segment in the U.S.
The new logo’s three circles reflect the notion of positive impact with long-term resonance: the industrial reproduction of a natural process at scale.
The colors reference the biotech sector, with the purple transitioning to a planet earth green blue. The perfection of the geometry underscores the company’s quest for excellence and its enduring principle of circularity and zero waste. The clarity and geometric roundness of the typeface, meanwhile, echo the brand’s values of inclusion and openness
Expanding from three years to ten, the global partnership will jointly develop and market insect meal to help aqua feed customers raise more sustainable seafood with less environmental impact
The agreement combines Innovafeed’s expertise in formulating precision insect ingredients and Cargill’s global animal nutrition capabilities to scale up the use of insect ingredients in multiple types of animal feed. Under this new contract, Cargill will benefit from high-performance and sustainable ingredients for salmonids.
This round led by Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), also includes existing investors Creadev and Temasek, and new strategic and financial investors: global agribusiness leaders ADM and Cargill – both of which have strategic partnerships with Innovafeed – as well as Future French Champions, ABC Impact, IDIA Capital Investissement and Grow Forward.
Innovafeed will use the capital to:
● Continue increasing production capacity in France through the further expansion of its Nesle site in the north of France, the world’s largest vertical insect farm;
● Accelerate its international expansion, notably in the United States with the construction of a new production plant in Decatur, IL, in collaboration with ADM; and prepare global roll-out of Innovafeed’s technology, including development in Asia
● Continue to invest in breakthrough technology and R&D for the formulation of high-precision and high-performance ingredients for animals, plants and, in the future, for human food.
Innovafeed is thrilled to join the community of B Corp Certified companies who are committed to use business as a “force for good”, that is, purpose-driven organizations addressing societal challenges in an ethical and environmentally responsible way.
The B Corp Certification is a rigorous and comprehensive assessment process based on five impact pillars: Environment, Customers, Workers, Governance and Community. Innovafeed has demonstrated outstanding impact on the Environment pillar, in particular, thanks to its innovative production model referred to as Industrial Symbiosis.
The French Tech Next40, which aims to bring out France’s future world-class technology leaders, is emphasizing this year three key criteria: R&D, re-industrialization and commitments to climate and society.
Innovafeed’s inclusion in the Next40 is a perfect example of this, and is a testament to the company’s growth, momentum, and its ambition to put tech at the center of a sustainable and impactful agribusiness.
We are proud to be a recipient of this new support program operated by La French Tech in collaboration with the General Secretariat for Investment and Bpifrance.
French Tech 2030 supports emerging players in disruptive innovation, focusing on economic objectives and priority technologies for French sovereignty.
In order to support the acceleration of its production and sales growth, which more than doubled in 2023, Innovafeed unveils its new brand Hilucia™, redesigning its offer around a complete range of high-quality ingredients for animal and plant nutrition, with minimal environmental impact.
Hilucia™ embodies the combination of the exceptional recycling capabilities of the Hermetia illucens larvae with the cutting-edge technology developed by Innovafeed’s teams.
This recognition celebrates Innovafeed’s ongoing efforts to redefine the future of more sustainable plant and animal nutrition and push the boundaries of innovation in the emerging insect industry.
Innovafeed joins the ranks of NVIDIA, YouTube, OpenAI, Airbnb and many others, in this list of pioneers in their sector.
The inauguration of its NAIIC (North American Insect Innovation Center) marks a significant milestone in its expansion into North America. The choice of Decatur, Illinois, is not coincidental: situated in the heart of the corn-belt, with hundreds of processing plants spread across several states, the region offers high potential for deploying multiple sites in the future. The expanded region is also a historical hub of innovation for the agro-industry, making it a strategic location for Innovafeed to serve its key markets.
Since 2023, the company, in partnership with ADM, has already launched its Hilucia™ range for the pet food market in North America.
For the second consecutive year, Innovafeed joins the French Tech Next40, reaffirming its commitment to French innovation and excellence.
This new extension brings the total floor area to 55,000m². In doing so, it multiplies larval production capacity by five and improves breeding conditions through automated and optimized production flow management. Through this extension, Nesle thus becomes the world’s largest insect production site.
Innovafeed is pleased to announce two strategic partnerships with renowned American pet food companies, Jiminy’s and Arch, for the deployment of its Powered by Hilucia™ co-branding on Jiminy’s Good Grub Dog Food and Arch’s Insect and Plant Recipe Dog Food.
This grant will enable the replication of Innovafeed’s unique production model in Decatur, Illinois. The goal is to provide American farmers with a natural and sustainable fertilization solution: insect manure (frass), which is rich in nutrients and stimulates soil microbial activity.
Inaugural visit of Nesle 3, the third phase of expansion of Innovafeed’s industrial site, in the presence of Mr. Xavier Bertrand, President of the Hauts-de-France Region, Mr. Rémi Cardon, Senator of the Somme, Mr. Rollon Mouchel Blaisot, Prefect of the Somme, Mrs. Laurence Blaisot, Sub-Prefect of Péronne, Mr. Frédéric Mule, Mayor of Nesle, and representatives from Tereos and Kogeban, Innovafeed’s industrial partners.
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In the presence of Ministers Bruno Le Maire and Christophe Béchu, the inauguration of this second extension represents a major step forward, a symbol of green reindustrialization in the service of a new French industry of excellence with a positive impact and an illustration of the revitalization of French territories under the France 2030 plan.