€100k · Other round · Cleantech · Cehegín, Spain
Entomonorte, a Spanish company developing insect-based systems for converting organic waste into higher-value materials, has secured €100k in financing from Sociedad Regional de Promoción (SRP) through the Asturias Startup Fund. SRP says the money will support a pre-industrial demonstrator at the Carrio Innovation Centre in Laviana, initial R&D and technical validation, and two qualified jobs.
The company uses black soldier fly larvae to process food-industry and agricultural residues. Entomonorte says it first characterises each waste stream, tests individual materials and calculated mixtures, and measures biological, nutritional and conversion performance before designing an implementation plan. The resulting larval biomass and residual material can be processed into protein-rich feed ingredients, fatty acids and compost, depending on the input and regulatory constraints.
The pilot turns variable waste into measurable process data
Organic by-products are not a uniform feedstock. Their composition, seasonality, storage and microbiology can change both larval performance and the value of the outputs. That makes Entomonorte’s pre-industrial plant more than a capacity expansion: it is intended to show whether the company can reproduce its process with real regional waste streams and generate the data needed to design a viable facility.
The containerised format should let the team test the technology without committing immediately to a full-scale plant. If validation establishes repeatable yields, processing times and output quality, Entomonorte can use those results to make a clearer commercial case to waste producers and potential buyers of feed ingredients or fertiliser. If performance varies sharply by input, the business will depend more heavily on residue-specific consulting and tailored plant design.
Public financing funds the industrial proof point
SRP says the financing supports Entomonorte’s move into Asturias and leaves room for later expansion at Carrio. The Asturias Startup Fund’s published terms describe its standard instrument as a convertible participating loan and require co-financing of at least 25% of the investment, although SRP did not disclose Entomonorte’s deal-specific terms beyond the €100k amount.
That structure fits the immediate task: funding equipment and validation before the new site has commercial-scale operating data. The next meaningful milestone is therefore not simply opening the demonstrator, but proving that it can turn locally available residues into consistent products under conditions that customers can evaluate. A successful pilot would give Entomonorte both technical evidence and a reference installation for future projects; a bespoke result would point to a slower, services-led route to scale.
