Description

Thunder Foods Lda. is a company that produces insect protein (Tenebrio Molitor) to incorporate into human food products.

Over the past few years, the company has invested in a Research & Development process to master the life cycle of this insect. Now they seek to move their developed knowledge to an industrial production stage.

This campaign will allow financing the development of several R&D projects that the company has in progress, namely the InFishMix and the Embalagem do Futuro (Packaging of the Future) projects. This way, Thunder Foods will advance towards the engineering and industrialization of its production process. 

It is urgent to find new and more sustainable alternative protein sources. One possible solution includes insects; scalability will be key in this process. Today's great challenge for companies in this sector is to develop industrialization processes to mimic nature and natural cycles. The production of insect protein is more sustainable than traditional alternatives, taking up far less space and using far fewer resources to produce the same amount of protein.

Thunder Foods' Unit is located in Santarém, the centre of agri-food production in Portugal.

Thunder Foods wants to answer two major challenges:

• the need to find alternative and more sustainable solutions for animal and human nutrition 
• the need to find sustainable solutions for soil remediation and plant nutrition.

Solutions to these challenges must not only be more environmentally sustainable but must also be of sufficient scale to have a real impact as opposed to niche solutions. Thunder Foods aims to be such a solution, using Tenebrio Molitor as a tool, becoming an insect protein and fertilizer production company working on an industrial scale. The co-funding from the Goparity investor community will contribute to the engineering process, and move the company from a pre-industrial scale to an industrial scale.

The Impact

Direct

• Promotion of innovation, research and industrialization: the investment in research in the development of innovative solutions for cleaner and more sustainable agriculture and animal feed. With two ongoing grant projects called InFishMix and Embalagem do Futuro (Packaging of the Future, translated from the Portuguese), Thunderfoods will strengthen its innovation resources and industrialization capacities.
• Promoting the innovative sector economy: Thunderfood’s R&D collaborates with other companies in the insect sector and from other areas, to highlight Portugal in the industry of using insects as a scalable sustainable solution.

Indirect

• 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 Thunderfoods, 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.

Contribution to the Sustainable
Development Goals

Sustainable Development Goals

Financial viability

Download Key Investment Information Sheet

Guarantees

Shareholders' pledge - Daniel Murta and Diogo Palha.

The Promoter

About THUNDER FOODS, LDA

Thunder Foods was created in 2021, but its story began more than 10 years ago with research developed by one of its founders. The company's ambition is to industrially produce insect protein to be incorporated into human food, obtaining additional organic fertiliser in the process.

The promotor currently has 6 employees and hopes to grow to 30 by the end of 2025. Thunder Foods is one of the main promoters of the Mobilizing Agenda InsectERA - The Age of Insects, co-funded by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan.

The company is still working in the pre-industrial phase, developing its technology and engineering for its industrialization. Thunder Foods has already conducted tests with several potential customers of its protein and fertilizer, including large food production companies.

The team

Marisa Santos

R&D Director

Simão Lima

Quality Director and Operational Manager

Inês Vieira

Production and Innovation Manager

Diogo Palha

CEO

Daniel Murta

Founder and manager

Business Model

Updates