⁍ Ynsect raised $224 million from investors including Hollywood star Robert Downey Jr.’s Footprint Coalition.

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⁍ The company breeds mealworms that produce proteins for livestock, pet food and fertilisers.

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⁍ Due to open in early 2022, it will produce 100,000 tonnes of insect products such as flour and oil annually.

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– Robert Downey Jr. and other big-name investors are throwing their support behind a French startup’s plan to create the world’s biggest insect farm. Ynsect has raised $224 million from investors, including Downey, to build a second insect farm in Amiens in northern France, reports Reuters. The company breeds mealworms that produce proteins for livestock, pet food, and fertilisers, and will use the funds to build what it says will be the world’s largest insect farm. Due to open in early 2022, it will produce 100,000 tons of insect products such as flour and oil annually and conserve land use while creating 500 jobs. “It’s important to develop insect sectors today because the world needs more proteins, more food, more feed to feed the animals that will make eventually meat and fish,” says Ynsect CEO Antoine Hubert. “But beyond this, obviously, human food is a market.”