French startup Ÿnsect leader in insect production in Europe announced on June 6 a new leadership with a new Executive Committee organization to support the expansion of its activities and strategic goals.
Shankar Krishnamoorthy, a past leader in the energy sector, will be leading the expansion of the company, the only one authorized to place lesser mealworm larvae on the European market for a period of five years.
“I’m excited to take the company to the next stage, using all of my previous experience,’’ Krishnamoorthy told Forbes, who spent two years at Ÿnsect to understand how this particular industry works.
The new board seen the participation of INNIT International’s founcer Eugenio Minvielle, automotive industry expert Jean-Christophe Quémard, Partner in Euquity’s founder Hans Wackwitz, Peugeot Invest UK’s CEO Jean-Paul Lemonnier, Astanor Ventures’ co-founder and partner Eric Archambeau , Bpifrance’s Ecotechnologies deputy manager director Gilles Schang and director of expertise François-Xavier de Thieulloy.
The announcement follow the news of the first tranche of $160 million in Series D funding collected in April and the release of the in-house pet food brand Sprÿng , earlier this June.
As the company enters a new phase, Krishnamoorthy says the new board will help the company face challenges of industrial scaling and adjust itself to the realities of the new company’s situation.
Twelve-years CEO and co-founder Antoine Hubert will become Executive Vice-President and CŸO, focusing on innovation, science and impact.
Expansion & internationalisation
With Krishnamoorthy’s past experience in international development, Ÿnsect hopes to smoothly expand his presence globally, having now plants in France, the U.S. and soon in Mexico.
The company said it is looking to expand to “all continents,” but declined to say whether specific regions have already been selected.
Krishnamoorthy says the expansion is a natural path for the company, due to its goal to as contributing to decarbonize the food sector by producing more sustainable ingredients: “We cannot achieve that objective by simply building one plant in France,” he told Forbes.
The comapany owns in fact the biggest insect farm in the world, located in the French town of Amiens, which Antoine Hubert says is currently oversubscribed, with plans to deliver the first product batches at the end of 2023: “We have now bigger demand than what the supply could fulfill for the next two to three years,” he told, adding that the company is going to focus on high-value markets with highest profitability such as pet food and for human consumption. “We have a good relationship with the second sector, specifically with fish feed, but it’s a question of prioritization,” he continued.
Securing Raw Material
Over the past 12 years, the company has developed low carbon footprint products suitable for all pet sectors. This has enabled them to form strategic partnerships with leading companies to offer a diverse range of products that help decarbonize the final wet or dry pet food product.
“As we see more regulatory change in Europe, you’ll see that some sectors struggle to source the quantities of inputs they need for their own business. We have seen the pet food sector is very stressed to secure further critical raw materials for their businesses. So we are taking a lot of boxes,” Hubert told, adding that through Ynsect’s new brand Sprÿng, the company is signing contracts each month.
But the company’s ability to decarbonize the food sector goes beyond the pet food category. The company’s product portfolio includes plant products such as insect-based fertilizers. Fertilizer’s prices have heavily increased over the past two years due to the Ukrainian conflict as Russia produces necessary ingredients for traditional fertilizers production, whereas insect based alternative could help break Europe’s raw material dependency.
Read the full article here
