Description

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:

The Impact

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.

Impact Indicators

33

jobs created

Contribution to the Sustainable
Development Goals

Sustainable Development Goals

Financial viability

The company expects to achieve an annual turnover of more than 10 million euros from the sale of these products. However, only in 2023 will the company show positive results. 

The funds for the repayment of the loan will come mainly from Portugal 2020. GoParity represents only a small fraction of the company's financial structure.

Download Key Investment Information Sheet

The Promoter

About Ingredient Odyssey SA

Ingredient Odyssey, SA (IO) was founded on March 4, 2014 by Daniel Murta, who is the CEO and head of R&D at IO. It was during his PhD that he saw in insects the opportunity to contribute to sustainability in food production, developing protein alternatives and new nutritional sources for human and animal food, based on insects.  

One of the first partnerships emerged with the National Institute for Agricultural and Veterinary Research (INIAV) in 2013, a core partner of the EntoGreen project.

The first project submitted jointly with the institute focused on alternative protein sources for animal feed (Genetics and nutrition and alternative feed resources for terrestrial livestock production, SFS-01a-2014) and was submitted in early 2014 under a Horizon 2020 application led by the University of Milan and involving several entities from different countries, inside and outside the European Community.

Currently, IO and INIAV continue with the development of the project having simultaneously investigated the creation of solutions for plant by-products, bringing the circular economy to the agri-food sector.

In September 2015, Rui Nunes joined the corporate structure of Ingredient Odyssey, as he also worked with insects.

To this day EntoGreen continues to develop work in the area and has started the construction of a bioindustrial unit in which it will be possible to convert 36,000 tonnes of plant by-products into thousands of tonnes of final products.

However, the role of R&D in the history of IO does not end with the implementation of the first bioindustrial unit the company intends to continue researching and developing new projects with innovative biotechnologies, hoping to leave its mark on environmental sustainability in Portugal and the world.

The company has already concluded and inaugurated EntoGreen's new R&D Unit, which is fully operational and will be a fundamental tool for further improving processes and adding value to the final products. The Santarém Industrial Unit is expected to start production in the last quarter of this year (2022).

The team

Daniel Murta

Managing partner and CEO

Managing partner and CEO

Diogo Palha

Managing partner CFO

Managing partner CFO

Gonçalo C. Fererira

TTO

TTO

Maria Ana Machado

Innovation Manager

António Campos

Secretary General InsectERA

Business Model

Updates