Innovafeed enters a new growth phase following a €51 million funding round

French insect protein producer Innovafeed has completed its industrialization phase and reorganized its operations around its Nesle facility, supported by a new €51 million funding round.

The new funding round, largely backed by Innovafeed's financial partners, will help accelerate the development of locally sourced, sustainable, high-performance ingredients enabled by the company’s large-scale technology.

"After many years of studying the benefits of this raw material in the nutrition of sea bass, sea bream, and trout, we have decided to use these new ingredients on a large scale. This expansion is now possible thanks to Innovafeed's technological breakthrough, which is currently the most advanced in Europe," assured Fabio Brambilla, Ph.D., Nutritionist at NaturAlleva.

The reorganization will integrate zootechnical R&D into the Nesle facility and cut 60 jobs, mainly at the Gouzeaucourt site. The company says it will support affected employees and work with employee representatives and authorities.

With this new investment, Innovafeed plans to accelerate the commercial development of its Hilucia™ ranges, particularly in the aquaculture functional segments, invest in industrial equipment and processes, and optimize its industrial assets.

Hilucia™ was launched in 2024 to accelerate the company's production and sales growth and to facilitate strategic collaborations with major industry leaders such as Cargill.

"The successful scaling of our industrial model marks an important milestone for Innovafeed today and opens a new phase of commercial deployment. Innovafeed is now focusing its efforts on accelerating the development of its ingredient value chains, capturing the full value of their multiple functional properties to improve animal health and growth, which have been validated and demonstrated over the past ten years," said Clément Ray, CEO and co-founder of Innovafeed.