Better Origin, a UK startup that builds insect farms to upcycle food waste, has raised $16 million in fresh funding.
- The Series A round was led by London-based VC firm Balderton Capital. Other participating investors included Berlin’s Fly Ventures and Athens-based Metavallon VC.
- It takes Better Origin’s total funding to date to $19 million.
- In a statement, the Cambridge-based startup said it will use the funding to expand its team and scale its solution internationally.
How it works:
Founded in 2015, Better Origin builds AI-powered insect “mini-farms” in shipping containers, which clients can deploy on-site to upcycle agrifood waste into useful commodities such as animal feed.
- The startup says its X1 mini-farms “recreate the conditions found in nature where food is eaten by insects and upcycled into essential nutrients for other animals,” and use “AI and automation to create the optimal environment for this cycle to flourish.”
- Each X1 is able to convert organic waste — for example, expired and unwanted food from local supermarkets — into feedstock for the thousands of black soldier fly larvae that they host.
- The larvae can then be fed to animals, providing an inexpensive, sustainable, and healthy source of nutrition for livestock.
Why it matters:
Better Origin claims that its solution is able to cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and enhance overall food security in several ways.
- In 1 square meter, the Better Origin X1 can supposedly produce the same amount of animal feed as 1,500 square meters of open-field soy cultivation – and with barely any of the inputs required for the latter.
- Rather, it uses unwanted or expired food products as its main input, thereby reducing food waste and related emissions.
- By enabling the production of animal feed on-site, Better Origin’s mini-farms reduce the need for long-distance feed shipments, cutting costs overall.
- Using black soldier fly larvae as feed allows farm animals to forage for unprocessed, live food — just as they might in nature — rather than being fed highly-processed food pellets.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
