Climate start-up Good Grub is transforming New Zealand’s food waste into high value insect protein with an NZ $3.54M grant from the government.
The company employs black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) technology to convert waste streams that would have otherwise gone to landfill into feedstock for animals or aquaculture.
Good Grub Co-founder Jessie Stanley sat down with Future Alternative to discusser how she’s using her experience as a food technologist and eco pet food founder to bring BSFL farming to NZ.
Good Grub started with you growing BSFL in your sister’s bathroom several years ago. How did you get from there to where you are at this moment?
I’m a food technologist by trade. I’ve worked in the food industry my entire life, and I have seen food waste in horrific amounts. I’ve been up to my ankles in [waste] ice cream and it always really shocked me.
I’m also an entrepreneur, a second time founder, and I exited a business in 2018 and I decided that whatever I did next, it had to be in the impact space. I actually started the project looking at making pet food myself because I stumbled across black soldier flies as an amazing protein. That project was very difficult to get off the ground. Long story short, kibble manufacturers are few and far between in New Zealand. So I didn’t get to quite the place that I wanted to.
I was speaking to a lot of insect protein growers in Australia and I finally put two and two together – instead of importing insect protein, why don’t I try and grow this myself? Luckily, I had two co-founders that also have amazing skills in the food industry, engineering, and growing and scaling companies.
We had very humble beginnings and then what happened was that beautifully, we kept on getting grant after grant. It snowballed to the point where we managed to get backing from the New Zealand government for a rather substantial grant. And because my co-founders and my background is in large scale food manufacturing, our intention is to build New Zealand’s first [BSFL] commercial plant. We’re currently capital raising.
You’ve said Good Grub has received close to half of your needed funding at this point from the government’s Waste Minimisation Fund. What kinds of investors are you looking towards to complete the rest of your raise?
Our current grant gives us 47% of our funding. So we are looking for 53%, which is NZ 4 million. We are currently speaking to impact investors and going through the process of due diligence and really connecting. I went on an amazing accelerator [program] through Creative HQ in Wellington. That was really helpful because when you’re raising capital, it’s quite new. I’ve been in business a long time, but being in the venture world is a whole new language, so it was really great to do that.
We’ve been supported by Motion Capital. We won the accelerator, so we have an initial VC committed to the round already, and now we’re out there actively fundraising. It involves a lot of conversations and a lot of meetings.
That’s where we’re at now in terms of people knowing about black soldier flies. There’s definitely interest in New Zealand. Nobody has actually managed to get off the ground commercially, so we will be first to market here.
As the first to do this in NZ, when you’re making your proposition to potential investors, are you drawing upon the success in insect protein and black soldier flies that other countries such as Australia have had?
I think there’s a few things that can help de-risk a project. And knowing that this is a new industry globally, and there are people having great success definitely helps us to connect with investors. It’s a compelling narrative whereby you’re taking a waste stream and you’re using waste in a more meaningful way.
We have a lot of pets here in New Zealand, and obviously [a lot of] black soldier flies. We have a growing aquaculture industry, and we have a lot of food waste. In fact, in New Zealand, we’re in an interesting situation where our population is 5 million, but we grow enough food for 40 million. We over-index on food waste, so we’re in a good position.
What is your production facility like and where is it based?
We have a site that we have organized for our first plant, and it’s in the vicinity of a large agricultural growing region in New Zealand. So we have a plentiful and motivated community to try and use waste in a more meaningful way. We are going to be using vertical farming and agro robotics, so we are optimizing through tech.
Where do your waste input streams come from? Do you have any current cooperations at the moment and any plans for who you want to partner with in the future?
We have partnerships with growers and that’s great because it means that we can have a really nice circularity for giving back for their crops. However, we will be doing a blended model where we will be using waste that was destined for landfill as well. We want to be as impactful as we can be.
We will be continuing our discussions with different supermarkets and providers of post-consumer waste as we evolve. Our first stage is to settle the ship, get our tech up and running, and then from there make more meaningful partnerships along the way. Definitely, we’ve got the initial, all these conversations and relationships that we’ve built.
Everybody here and my team has been involved in the food industry. I think we’ve got 75 years worth of food industry expertise between us, so we’re really well connected in the New Zealand environment. Getting this off the ground will then allow us to put those future conversations into place. But we are definitely oversubscribed for waste for our first factory.
What advantages do you think New Zealand might have in the insect protein space compared to a different market such as Australia?
I think obviously we have first mover advantage here, which is really cool. And we have a large supply of waste due to the fact that we’re a country producing different feedstocks.
I also think in New Zealand, we have our own unique way of looking at innovation and creativity. We have quite a ‘bootstrappy’ mentality where we’re a really little country but we do innovate on a global scale, so we’ve got some real pedigree there. And I love the fact that this is a really new industry, so it’s really ripe for new innovation.
I’m definitely getting to know different people from the startup community, especially being on the accelerator recently. And there is a very much a collaborative spirit out there. I’m really in contact with other people starting up and giving me coaching on how to raise capital and that’s fantastic. I definitely think there’s a good sense of collaboration.
Does Good Grub have any plans to go beyond pet food and create a version of your product targeted for the end consumer?
We’re going to be pretty busy with B2B at the beginning. But never say never. I certainly am a food technologist. I’ve tasted it. Call me crazy – it’s a little bit nutty. And I’ve made hundreds of different human food products. I think it could go into an energy protein bar for humans. But I don’t think we’re going to go there because there’s so many alternative protein and plant protein solutions in that space. I think black soldier fly larvae for [pet food] and aquaculture are going to be the real drivers of this industry.
I think it really depends on what happens with the planet in terms of future requirements for protein as to whether [our black soldier fly protein] is utilized for humans. But I predict that it’s probably not going to be. There’s so much scope as an incredible therapeutic feedstock for so many different animals.
We’re really keen on having investors who want to journey with us to make an impact and get this incredible industry up and running in New Zealand.
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