In a world where food is scarce due to climate change, insect-based proteins are increasingly being considered as an important alternative food service. Livin’ Farms has put insect larvae at the center of its alternative protein game. The Vienna-based company produces Hive Pro, designed to automate the process of rearing and processing black soldier flies.
It’s been four years since I met the company in Central Hong Kong. Show Me the Mealworm Hive Explorer STEM Kit, designed to teach kids about the farming process – and about the life cycle of beetles. The company sent me home with a good sized jar of dried mealworms. Texture was good, but the whole thing could have benefited from more flavor.
Image Credits: Livin Farms
Hive Pro is a very large, industrialized system that feeds the larvae with food waste, uses robotic arms to move the trays and regurgitate the contents, which are then turned into powder. The rest of the trays, meanwhile, are used as compost. The SOSV-backed startup is currently piloting a 1,400 square meter farm in Austria.
This week, Livin Farms announced that it has raised $5.8 million, adding to its $3.8 million in seed funding. Series A is led by Peter Lurssen, who said in a press release: “Livin Farms is on a mission to upcycle organic waste through modular and automated insect factories and is poised to be a major player in this. A fast growing industry.
Image Credits: Livin Farms
Once you get past the initial hype of feeding meal fly larvae, it’s easy to see why investors would want such a technology, a natural process that literally turns food waste into food.
Founder and CEO Katrina Unger says: “With our proprietary technology and biological know-how, our customers turn significant losses in organic waste into highly attractive and additional income. “At the same time, our customers make a significant contribution to repairing the broken food system and saving the planet.” He told TechCrunch that the process takes about 11 days, during which the larvae “become half a ton of biomass and half a ton of compost.”
