[TW] Hello, welcome to another Insect Biotech Group podcast, an interview with our CEO, Ignacio Gavilan. My name is Tobias Webb. I’m a co-founder and Chief Sustainability and External Affairs Officer here at IBG. Ignacio and I, along with our colleague Ben Brown, also a founder, are here at the University of Granada in Andalusia, Spain.
Ignacio, before we talk about what we’re doing here at the university and where we’re going next, for those who aren’t familiar, what does the InsectBiotech Group do? What are we doing now what are we aiming to do in the next few years.
[IG] Very good day to everyone. We essentially created this company almost a year ago to rear insects, specifically Black Soldier Flies, with full circularity in mind. So, we aim to take agricultural waste, particularly from Spain, especially from Andalusia, and convert it through BSF larvae into three products.
The first one is the insect protein, which will feed pigs, salmon, trouts, sturgeon, your dog, and your cat. The second one is the excrement from this insect. This insect has a lifespan of 10 to 12 days; all the direct excrement becomes organic fertilizer, which regenerative agriculture companies will benefit from.
And the third product, which comes from the skin of this larva, is chitin, used in oils that the pharmaceutical and beauty product industry can utilize. So, that’s, in essence, our purpose. That’s why we are here, and today is a very important day for us at the University of Granada.
[TW] What are we doing here? We’ve just been around the labs; we’ve just been meeting with lots of scientists. What are we doing here today?
[IG] As we said from the very beginning, research and development are key for IBG. So, we want to partner with universities. We started with the University of Granada, with whom we have an agreement for the next six months to look into the digestibility of substrates.
Going back to my original point, we’re going to use agricultural residues that come in different shapes and forms. We want the university to help us with the treatment, the pre-treatment of those substrates, to find the right mix. It could be olive pomace, brewers’ spent grain, or other residues from various industries, but these need to be pre-treated in order to maximize the digestibility by the larvae.
In other words, we want the larvae to grow strong in 10 to 12 days by making these residues highly edible for them, and that’s what the University of Granada is helping us with.
[TW] We’ve got our demo R&D unit here to grow larvae and feed them, testing the feedstock. We’ve got this team of amazing scientists, which means phenomenal labs at one of the best universities in the world for this sort of thing. Let’s say this works in three runs; we’re going to then take our pre-treated substrate or pomace blended with carbohydrates. What are we going to do with that?
[IG] We’re going to bring two R&D facilities in the form of a container. This is a 20-foot container. We’re going to install one here at the university and another one in the field in Jaén, in an olive crushing facility called Casa Grande. So, we’re going to start with the substrates.
Yeah, we’re going to test them, and those that are successful, we will progressively send to the other grow boxes. This container, in essence, is a mini plant. Once we finish this process in three to six months, we will be in a position to scale up into a plant, a proper big block, with the substrates that are more successful.
[TW] And what is the objective after that? Let’s say we get the feedstock, the substrate we want. We get it to Casa Grande. We start feeding it to black soldier fly larvae. They start spitting out this product that we want. What’s the next stage for the InsectBiotech Group? Let’s say, you know, March or April next year.
[IG] So, once we validate all this substrate, we’re going to go into the commissioning of a larger plant. Most likely, it’ll be in the province of Jaen. We’re already in conversations with the government of Andalucía, with research organizations, with other universities, and business schools in Sevilla. Of course, we are raising capital. So, if you happen to be an investor listening to us, please do contact us.
We’ve managed to successfully get enough to take off with these agreements, but we need the second round of seed money to continue with this process and to move into Series A, which is the bigger project. The government is very enthusiastic. There’s a strong likelihood that this project will be considered strategic for the region. Then, we will seek EU funding. Of course, we’re going to have to have some debt, some bank support, but as soon as we choose a few substrates that are good, we’re going to move into scale, starting by a big plant, moving into four or five units in the next five years.
[TW Ignacio thank you so much for your time.