Revolutionizing the way we feed animals: an interview with Keiran Whitaker, Founder and CEO, Entocycle

August 28, 2024

Company name: Entocycle

Solution: Insect farming technology using AI automation, computer vision and robotics to farm insects at scale

Year founded: 2015

Location: London, UK

Entocycle has developed leading insect farming technology using AI automation, computer vision and robotics to farm insects at scale. The company provides this technology to insect farmers who use it to produce alternative sustainable protein for animal feed.

Specifically, Entocycle specializes in the black soldier fly, which is the fastest-growing insect on Earth and can eat the widest range of food wastes. Crucially, it is one of the few species that is already regulated for animal feed. 

In this interview, Founder and CEO of Entocycle, Keiran Whitaker, explains how Entocycle’s technology is a crucial puzzle piece in sustainably feeding a global population of nearly 10 billion people by mid-century.

What makes your solution unique compared to other insect farming tech companies?

We’re the only company that uses computer vision and AI, which means we can deliver the highest accuracy, low operational costs and increased productivity in black soldier fly farms.

It’s actually really easy to farm insects badly and very challenging to farm them at a commercial scale, continuously and cost-price competitively. When working with an insect that’s the size of a grain of sand and grows into a 3cm flying object in 21 days, it can become difficult to monitor and control a colony of billions. Only our level of machine vision automated technology can control all the relevant parameters to ensure optimal farming conditions.

Consistency when farming insects is key because insect farmers must sell a consistent product to the market. This quality assurance is vital and can only be achieved through our computer vision and AI.

With insect farming you need to optimize two processes: On the one hand, you need to produce the protein - this is where the profit lies. On the other hand, you have to maintain population growth. While our competitors work with a 40-60% to 80-20% protein-to-population maintenance ratio, we deliver a 98% protein to 2% population maintenance ratio.

Entocycle lab-scale insect rearing unit

What is the emissions reduction potential of your solution?

To assess this, we looked at all the areas of impact our technology addresses. The production of animal feed has global-scale climate and environmental impacts. Soy production, for example, is a major cause of deforestation, while the sourcing of fishmeal is destructive to global maritime food chains.

Furthermore - and this is something not many people are aware of - animal feed is not produced in one place. In fact, it involves an international supply chain and global shipping.

Knowing that 70-80% of CO2 emissions from farming chicken comes from the animal feed supply chain, not from what’s happening on site, gives a good idea of the impact that animal feed production is having.

Our goal at Entocycle is that for every tonne of insect protein produced, there will be between 4-6 tonnes of CO2 sequestered.

Are there any other, non-sustainability related, advantages of Entocycle's solution?

The substrate for our flies is food waste. This means that our technology also improves waste management, which opens up an entire other value stream both commercially speaking and in terms of environmental impact. Our technology also enables local feed production, contributing to national food security. Recent events have shown how critical this is and with the climate changing further, this will only become more urgent.

Larvae in crate

What’s next for Entocycle, short and long term?

We already have equipment in several facilities around the world, including in the largest black soldier fly farm in North America. 

Our main focus now is to design and build modular insect farms for existing medium and large-scale farmers in the UK, Europe, Australasia and the US. We also want to deliver megafactories in our collaboration with Bühler, one of the world’s leading processing technology groups.

One of our goals would be to establish a 500t a day facility in the next two years. This would be a world-first.

What challenges do you anticipate on this journey?

From the outside, it’s regulation. From the inside, it’s growing the team while maintaining our strong identity and ethos. 

While the tailwind of regulation is on our side, progress there is glacial. By comparison, Entocycle is like a rocket. But things are moving in the right direction with legislation in place for animal feed and pet food. Specifically, UK legislation covers pet food and aquaculture, so fish feed, while the EU already legislates the use of black soldier flies in all animal feed for monogastrics, i.e. omnivorous farm animals such as poultry and pigs. It means that early adopters in the industry have started moving fast and we’re now seeing interest from mainstream players.

At the moment we have an incredible team of 30+ people. Entocycle’s values and ethics attract great talent from around the world and so far we have very low staff turnover. Having said this, if all the customers in our pipeline were to go ahead at the same time, our first challenge would be needing to grow our team quickly while maintaining our company ethos and culture.

How has Climentum helped you on your journey?

Climentum led our series A financing round. Climate tech startups need these climate leaders in the VC world, who understand that while we are riskier than SaaS, the upside to humanity and future profit will be significant.

Stefan and the team also provide us with the parameters and guidance to continually establish sustainable business practices within the company. They offer a rod that guides us as we grow and expand.

In the investment landscape many people don’t care much for sustainability or people. It’s great and reassuring to have nice, caring people on board. 

What’s something you want everyone to understand about your solution (that is sometimes misunderstood)?

Insect food is natural and has been part of animal and human diets throughout history. In the future, Entocycle technology will also be applicable to human food, for example as protein flour added to pasta, bread and noodles. 

Our technology is also a form of waste management. Instead of incinerating food waste, let’s use it to feed our black soldier flies, thereby creating a really circular process. Last but not least, our technology reduces the volume of waste being sent to landfill, which is much better for the planet.

Right now, animal and human waste is treated and spread onto land as fertilizer, leading to nitrification of soil, rivers and oceans which is damaging marine life. This adversely affects ecosystems around the world. Large swathes of the Gulf of Mexico, for example, are dead. They have so little oxygen that almost no life exists beneath the surface waters because of the huge amounts of pollution running down the Mississippi from massive farms in the south-west of the US. It’s important to me that our customers and investors understand all the dimensions of our impact.

Have we piqued your interest? Find out more about Entocycle and connect with Keiran.

Keiran Whitaker, Founder & CEO, Entocycle