Danish insect startup Enorm Biofactory closed a funding round of €50 million to scale up its black soldier fly insect factory in Jutland, Denmark from a pilot plant to a yearly production of approximately 11,000 tons of insect meal.  

Among new shareholders is one of Europe’s largest agribusiness companies, DLG. The financing round also includes loans from the Danish Green Investment Fund and Nykredit Bank. “With our current suppliers and cooperation partners, and DLG as a shareholder, we have a strong foundation to develop Enorm to commercial scale,” said Carsten Lind Pedersen, CEO at Enorm Biofactory.  

Enorm Biofactory was established in 2017. For the last three years, the company has established a pilot plant and is today producing three tons of insect meal per week. The planned scale-up is therefore approximately 70 times the current production. 

“The knowledge that we have built up establishing and running the pilot plant, gives us the confidence to scale up the plant to commercial scale. We have developed the project in close cooperation with experienced technology suppliers such as the Danish producer of ventilation systems SKOV A/S and producer of logistic systems, Sealing System A/S,” said Lind Pedersen.

Feeding trials with Enorm insect meal at the National Institute of Aquatic Resources at Technical University of Denmark (DTU) showed promising protein digestibility for trout and tilapia. Enorm Biofactory is planning to use the products from the pilot plant to explore and validate the potential for further different applications for feed and food, to develop and mature the market for insect-derived ingredients.