Nutrition Technologies Co-Founders Tom Berry (N) and Nick Piggott
Singapore-based insect protein company Nutrition Technologies has announced the completion of a US$20 million equity funding round led by PTT Ventures, the venture arm of Thai oil major PTT.
Sumitomo Corporation, ING Sustainable Investments, Mandala Capital, and existing investors Openspace Ventures, SEEDs Capital and Hera Capital also participated.
Nutrition Technologies will use these funds to further expand production capacity at its current operating plant in Malaysia and through a new joint-venture project in a soon-to-be-announced second country in Southeast Asia. It also intends to expand its R&D capabilities in Singapore; commence commercial activities in the UK and the EU, and add several new patents to its existing IP portfolio.
Founded in 2015 by two British entrepreneurs Nick Piggott and Tom Berry, Nutrition Technologies manufactures sustainable animal feed ingredients and biofertilisers, using a unique combination of biotechnology and black soldier fly larvae to recycle nutrients from agricultural and food processing byproducts.
Its two-hectare production facility in Johor, Malaysia, bioconverts several hundreds of tonnes of organic waste weekly. The facility produces functional proteins and oils with bioactive compounds that efficiently improve animal growth performance and health outcomes.
Nutrition Technologies plans to build several similar size facilities across Southeast Asia in the next five years.
Nutrition Technologies’s proprietary technologies and vertical insect production system are designed to capitalise on a tropical climate’s low-energy benefits and suitability.
Over the past few years, Nutrition Technologies has conducted multiple trials of their products on fish, shrimp, poultry, piglets and pets, with significant results. Its biofertiliser products improve soil health while naturally increasing plant resistance to disease, reducing the need for chemical pesticides.
“We are increasing production to meet market demand and providing essential ingredients to the domestic agricultural sector as well as boosting exports through shipping our products to Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Chile. We will also commence shipments to the UK and the EU very soon,” said Nick Piggott, Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Nutrition Technologies.
“Commercial insect protein production is one of the most important innovations of the past few years, with the potential to disrupt the animal feed and fertiliser sectors and solve multiple issues the world is currently facing,” said Dr Buranin Rattanasombat, Senior Executive Vice President, Innovation and New Ventures, PTT Public Company.
“We believe insect protein is one of the most important recent solutions to protein production, contributing to solving various environmental issues and addressing several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),” said Masahito Uno, GM Life Science Division, Sumitomo Corporation.
The insect sector has gathered increasing attention over the past few years. The global insect protein market is estimated to be worth US$343 million in 2021 and is expected to grow with a CAGR of 26.49 per cent to reach US$1.3 billion by 2027.
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