INSEACT co-founders Tim van Vliet (L) and Michael Badeski
Singapore-based alternative protein company INSEACT announced today that it raised US$1.3 million earlier this year in an oversubscribed seed funding round from a host of investors, including ADB Ventures, Loyal VC (Canada), and INSEAD Asia Angels Club.
A large unknown global shrimp producer, a European family office, and private investors such as Claudia Zeisberger (INSEAD Business School’s Private Equity professor) and Idgar Kippersluis (co-founder of Europe-based Standard Investment) also participated.
INSEACT uses the money to build a Black Soldier Flies (BSF) pilot production and R&D site in Singapore and deliver the product to its customers.
Globally, almost all land viable for food production is already in use, and overexploited resources like natural fisheries are collapsing to feed a growing population. So the need for new food sources is inevitable, and INSEACT was founded to bridge this protein-population gap.
The concept of INSEACT was formed when the co-founders Tim van Vliet and Michael Badeski were in the MBA programme at INSEAD Business School.
The startup specialises in producing sustainable insect protein for aquaculture, starting with shrimp feed. It uses waste from palm oil operations as a raw material to feed the insects. Its cutting-edge solution enables a fully circular economy by redirecting waste streams from palm oil production away from carbon-emitting landfills to be bioconverted by BSF.
The process generates three products: high-quality protein, oil, and organic fertiliser. The protein products are XFprotein (a nutrient-rich animal feed ingredient, obtained from dried and ground black soldier fly larvae), XFoil (a clarified insect oil, extracted from our farmed black soldier fly larvae), and XFfrass (a by-product of black soldier fly larvae composting).
These protein products are high-performance feedstock for shrimp and fish, which reduce the reliance on wild-caught fish as the primary protein ingredient in aquaculture feed.
The startup claims its operations are carbon negative and produce zero waste.
INSEACT serves the fast-growing aquaculture feed market (13.3 per cent CAGR), which is projected to reach US$156 billion globally by 2022, of which 89 per cent is in Asia.
Tim van Vliet, CEO of INSEACT, said: “Sustainable insect-derived products are the key to solving a wide range of environmental problems. Our customers see conclusive evidence of shrimp growth benefits from our protein products, leading to significant cost savings and reduced feed consumption. INSEACT is home to almost the entire global production of farmed seafood. With the increasing cost basis of outdated fish and shrimp farming practices, we are receiving snowballing demand and plan to achieve industrial-scale insect protein production in record time.”
INSEACT has been developing a modular insect rearing system designed for flexible and predictable scaling of production capacity. The system takes the guesswork out of scaling-up by enabling lean, evidence-based decisions to determine when and where to increase production capacity.
This next-gen vertical rearing system draws on lessons from the earlier BSF companies, reducing INSEACT’s capital costs and boosting operational efficiencies.
Also Read: Can alternative proteins help build a more secure and sustainable food system?
Michael Badeski, COO of INSEACT, added: “The insect industry today is still young and innovating quickly, meaning production methods a few years from now will be different from what we see today. Flexibility-by-design in the way we scale production keeps us nimble to maintain industry-leading efficiency.”
“Alternative proteins will play a critical role in addressing Asia’s growing need for sustainable and affordable food supply. We believe INSEACT’s unique solution and approach has a real potential to scale,” said Kean Ng at ADB Ventures.
INSEACT won the INSEAD Venture Competition and was listed by Poets and Quants as a Most Disruptive MBA Startup of 2019.3.
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Image Credit: INSEACT
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