EntoGreen III

Insects that turn waste into protein and fertilizer.

Resumen de la inversión

Categoría de impacto

Sistemas agroalimentarios

Tipo de inversión

Préstamo

Interés anual

5.4

Plazo

meses

Nivel de riesgo

C+

EntoGreen, an Ingredient Odyssey (IO) brand focused on the circular economy in the agri-food sector, has reached an investment that will allow it to build the first industrial unit for bioconversion with insects. The Santarém-based company will use insects to obtain protein for animal feed, non-chemical fertilizers, and insect oil from plant waste. In addition, EntoGreen will also invest in building its own R&D facility in the Industrial Zone of that same region.

For this purpose, IO has raised a combination of funds, equity, and debt, amounting to 13,36M€, and to implement the project, the company will continue to raise debt.

This is EntoGreen's third campaign, after raising 200.000€ through Goparity's investment community (EntoGreen I and II). The previous campaigns were focused on acquiring a robot that allows performing the inoculation process in an automated way with considerable gains in productivity, eliminating the possibility of human error, and improvements in energy efficiency in the process.

The promotor is now looking to raise another 300.000€ for final industrial investments - to strengthen the company's cash flow, allowing final payments for the installation and assembly of the industrial unit in Santarém to be made on time, while the promotor waits for their tax reimbursement and to receive Portugal 2020 funds.

The new unit, under final construction and scheduled to start production in October 2022, is innovative in the way it uses insects as a bioconversion tool. The EntoGreen technology uses the Black Soldier Fly as a biodigester and this new unit will annually convert 36,000 tons of vegetable by-products into 2.500 tons of protein, 500 tons of insect oil for animal feed, and 7.000 tons of organic fertilizer for the soils, giving back to plants and animals nutrients that today are wasted.

The investment, will also support the company in its overall R&D plan which encompasses an estimated investment of €5 million between 2021 and 2026 for new research projects that focus on creating new solutions for environmental sustainability.

At the moment, the company has already been contacted by several interested buyers who all told want to order the totality of the production, which will allow it to obtain an annual sales volume of more than 10 million euros.

Take a look at the constructions process:

¿Cuál es el impacto?

Direct

Reuse of waste and promotion of circularity: EntoGreen will use 36,000 tonnes of vegetable waste from agri-food processing industries annually to produce 7,000 tonnes of organic fertilizer, 2.5,000 tonnes of protein concentrate, and 500 tonnes of insect food oil. The by-products of the agro-food industry and their waste are a logistical, environmental and economic problem for companies in the industry, and EntoGreen's solution enables a sustainable reuse of the waste and its nutrients in a circular economy perspective.
Environmentally responsible process: the process of obtaining EntoGreen products from agri-food waste is based on biotechnology and consists of a clean process that does not generate waste and does not emit fumes or odours.
Contribution to more sustainable animal feed: protein concentrate and insect oil are products used in animal feed (so far in aquaculture and pet food), which allows the feed to be sustainable, due to the process of obtaining the products with a much lower carbon footprint than traditional solutions for obtaining protein.
Contribution to sustainable plant fertilisation: the organic fertiliser produced by EntoGreen, due to its process of obtaining it from waste and using insects, is biological and can be used in productions with this certification. This process presents a much smaller carbon footprint than the solutions for obtaining traditional fertilisers. It also contributes to the reduction of the use of chemical fertilisers that are potentially harmful to human health.
Job creation: with the expansion of the R&D unit and the implementation of the first industrial unit, EntoGreen expects to create 66 jobs. In total, 40% of the company's human resources will be highly qualified.

Indirect

Promotion of innovation and research: the investment in research in the development of innovative solutions for cleaner and more sustainable agriculture and animal feed. The association with its industrial units also allows for the transfer of knowledge and technology in the future.
Promoting the innovative sector economy: EntoGreen's R&D unit has the potential to leverage collaboration with other companies in the insect sector, which is nascent and has great potential for innovation and valorisation. These collaborative relationships can highlight Portugal in the industry of using insects as a scalable sustainable solution.

Indicadores de impacto
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jobs

created by our projects

Contribución a los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible
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Sobre el promotor

About

Ingredient Odyssey SA

Ingredient Odyssey, SA (IO) fue fundada el 4 de marzo de 2014 por Daniel Murta, quien es el CEO y responsable de I+D de IO. Fue durante su doctorado cuando vio en los insectos una oportunidad para contribuir a la sostenibilidad en la producción de alimentos, desarrollando alternativas de proteínas y nuevas fuentes nutricionales para la alimentación humana y animal, basadas en insectos.

Una de las primeras asociaciones surgió con el Instituto Nacional de Investigación Agraria y Veterinaria ((INIAV) en 2013, un socio clave del proyecto EntoGreen.

El primer proyecto presentado conjuntamente con el instituto se centró en fuentes alternativas de proteínas para la alimentación animal (Genética y nutrición y recursos alternativos de alimentación para la producción ganadera terrestre, SFS-01a-2014) y fue presentado a principios de 2014 bajo una solicitud de Horizonte 2020 liderada por la Universidad de Milán e involucrando a varias entidades de diferentes países, tanto dentro como fuera de la Comunidad Europea.

Actualmente, IO y INIAV continúan con el desarrollo del proyecto, habiendo investigado simultáneamente la creación de soluciones para los subproductos vegetales, llevando la economía circular al sector agroalimentario.

En septiembre de 2015, Rui Nunes se unió a la estructura corporativa de Ingredient Odyssey, ya que también trabajó con insectos.

Hasta el día de hoy, EntoGreen sigue desarrollando trabajo en el área y ha comenzado la construcción de una unidad bioindustrial en la que será posible convertir 36.000 toneladas de subproductos vegetales en miles de toneladas de productos finales.

Sin embargo, el papel de I+D en la historia de IO no termina con la implementación de la primera unidad bioindustrial, ya que la empresa pretende seguir investigando y desarrollando nuevos proyectos con biotecnologías innovadoras, con la esperanza de dejar su huella en la sostenibilidad ambiental en Portugal y en el mundo.

La empresa ya ha concluido e inaugurado la nueva Unidad de I+D de EntoGreen, que está totalmente operativa y será una herramienta fundamental para mejorar aún más los procesos y agregar valor a los productos finales. Se espera que la Unidad Industrial de Santarém comience la producción en el último trimestre de este año (2022).

Sitio web del promotor

https://www.entogreen.com/

Equipo

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Modelo de negocio
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