BACKGROUND
In 2011, Antoine Hubert, Jean-Gabriel Levon, Fabrice Berro and Alexis Angot became aware of the environmental and food challenges and created Ÿnsect, convinced of the necessity to put insects back at the base of the food chain to feed the world’s population and preserve biodiversity. To achieve these objectives, Ÿnsect co-coordinated a number of years of research and development in the DESIRABLE project, one of the largest R&D programs around the world based on insects. Thanks to these years of research, Ÿnsect launched in 2013 a first production on a laboratory scale, demonstrating its ability to create quality food products for animals. In 2015, after two fundraising events, Ÿnsect inaugurates Ÿnsite, its first vertical farm in Dole: a world premiere that integrates all the breakthrough technologies developed by Ÿnsect, with nearly 20 patents filed (and more than 30 at this day). This production enables it to supply its first customers in the pet-food sector, with several hundred tons of products per year.
At the end of 2016, Ÿnsect accelerated its development with the closing of its third round of financing. This allowed the start of the construction of a second production site, Ÿnsite, in Dole, in the Jura. At the same time, the number of Ÿnsect workers continued to increase until it exceeded the 100 employees.
The latest R&D studies demonstrate, once again, the remarkable performances of ŸnMeal and ŸnFrass products. In 2019, with the support of the European Commission (BBI), the company launched the Farmÿng project which aimed to build ŸnFarm, the largest industrial unit fully automated, specializing in the production of high-end insect proteins. In 2020, in order to carry out these projects, Ÿnsect extended its funding to raise the total amount of 435 million€. This round of financing will allow to finalize the construction of its new site, the largest vertical farm in the world and, above all, the first to be “carbon negative”.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PRODUCTS / SERVICES / TECHNOLOGY
Ynsect develops products from its first technological platform: YnFarmTM, which includes an insect production unit and a downstream processing unit. Ynsect focuses on the Tenebrio molitor beetle, which has many physiological, technical and biochemical advantages for breeding and processing. Ynsect has the world’s largest private research center on the subject and its highly robotised industrial demonstrator began production in September 2016, making Ynsect a technological leader in its field.
The first products from this breeding are:
- Ynmeal: an ingredient naturally rich in highly digestible proteins (more than 70%). Formulated with Molitor larvae, and produced in powder form, Ÿnmeal is perfectly suitable for the nutrition of farmed fish and shellfish. It is used at a level of 5 to 30% in the formulation of nutritional rations.
- Ynoil: a light oil, rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids, extracted by a mechanical process from Molitor larvae. It’s perfectly adapted to the direct of farmed fish and shellfish.
- Ynfrass: a natural fertilizer developed with the dejections. It increases significantly biomass and yield for all the crops tested compared to the use of 100% chemical fertilizers.
CUSTOMER REFERENCES / COLLABORATIONS / HIGHLIGHTS
Ynsect conducts major research programmes with research partners such as Giessen Justus-Liebig University, CNRS, AgroParisTech, CEA, IRSTEA, etc.
- The company also collaborates with partners such as Zelcor. Finally, Ynsect works with several industrial partners and has been the winner of numerous innovation competitions (Les trophées des futures licornes).
- Price of the disruptive strategy – EY
- Top 100 company global cleantech (2015, 2017, 2018)
- World Agri Tech Innovation Summit 2017
