Finnish insect protein producer Volare has secured €7.1 million in a funding round led by Springvest, with participation from Maki.vc and other existing investors. The capital will support the development of a second production facility and international expansion efforts.
The company has launched its first industrial-scale plant, Volare 01, located in a former newspaper printing hall. The 10,000-square-metre facility was completed on schedule and within a budget of €15 million. It is designed to produce up to 5,000 tonnes of insect protein and 2,000 tonnes of insect oil annually.
Volare utilizes the Black soldier fly to convert food-industry side streams into ingredients for aquafeed, pet food, and poultry feed. The proprietary process is highly automated, requiring only four employees per shift, and operates without process wastewater or fossil fuels.
The new plant represents a thousandfold increase in capacity compared to the company’s previous demonstration site. Volare reports that a significant portion of the production capacity at Volare 01 is already committed through offtake agreements with partners including Skretting.
Founded in 2021 as a spin-off from the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, the company has been commercially active since 2022. Its products are currently used in pet food and fish feed brands such as Alvar Pet, Dagsmark, and Alltech Fennoaqua.
