While the French insect protein industry remains marked by the liquidation of Ynsect, Innovafeed announces a fundraising of 51 million euros supported by its historic shareholders. At the same time, the company is undertaking a project to eliminate around sixty positions. A sequence which may seem contradictory but which above all illustrates the transition from a deeptech in the research phase to a company now focused on industrial exploitation and commercial development.
Innovafeed has just completed new financing of 51 million euros from its historic shareholders, including Creadev, QIA, Temasek, ABC Impact, ADM and French Food Capital. At the same time, the company plans to eliminate around sixty positions, two-thirds of which at its historic Gouzeaucourt site.
In an ecosystem where fundraising is typically associated with hiring and accelerating growth, the sequence may seem contradictory. It tells the reality of a company which considers itself to have passed the riskiest stage of its development and which is now reorganizing its resources around its industrial activity.
For several years, Innovafeed and Ynsect have been the two main French representatives of the insect protein sector. The two companies have raised several hundred million euros to develop unprecedented industrial capacities. But the difficulties encountered by Ynsect have profoundly changed the way we view the sector. From now on, investors no longer judge only technological promises or theoretical production capacities. They seek evidence of industrial execution and economic competitiveness.
This is precisely what Innovafeed is highlighting, since its last fundraising in 2022, the company claims to have reached three major milestones: more than 15,000 tonnes of proteins and oils produced at its Nesle site, volumes multiplied by ten and production costs divided by seven. The company also claims to have reached an industrial scale three times greater than that of the second world player in the sector.
Innovafeed now believes that it has demonstrated the robustness of its industrial tool, its Nesle site is presented as fully operational and capable of producing competitive volumes.
In this perspective, the fundraising of 51 million euros is no longer aimed at financing the construction of a new factory or the development of a disruptive technology. The company indicates that it wants to devote these resources to the commercial acceleration of its Hilucia™ ranges, the development of new applications and the continuous improvement of its industrial equipment.
It is also this change of phase which explains the announced reorganization. During the past decade, Innovafeed has mobilized significant research and development resources to build its technology, optimize its processes and validate the performance of its products. Today, the company announces the cessation of its zootechnical R&D activities on the Gouzeaucourt site and their partial integration in Nesle.
The movement may seem paradoxical, but in reality it is characteristic of many mature industrial companies. The skills needed to invent a technology are not always the same as those required to operate a large-scale industrial tool. As processes stabilize, needs shift to production, operational optimization, logistics and business development.
For the insect protein sector, this development perhaps marks an even more important step than the fundraising itself. After years spent convincing investors, building factories and demonstrating technological feasibility, the sector is entering a new phase: one where it must prove that it can sustainably generate economic value.
From this perspective, the 51 million euros announced by Innovafeed appear less as growth financing than as a vote of confidence granted to an industrial model which believes it has passed its main test, that of scaling up.
