Beta Hatch farms mealworms as an alternative protein source targeted primarily at livestock and pet feed. The company describes its farming process as “virtually zero-waste.” It is St. Louis-based and is expanding its flagship farm in Cashmere, Washington. Beta Hatch announced $10 million in funding as it eyes that expansion. The new facility is slated to be the largest of its kind in North America and the company expects to increase output 10x over the next year. The Cashmere location is currently powered by renewably sourced energy. Founder and CEO Virginia Emery said the company plans to grow its presence in rural America and employ and partner with local communities to help feed a growing global population. Beta Hatch is a five-year-old startup led by founder and CEO Virginia Emery, a PhD entomologist, that builds insect-rearing technology to convert organic waste into proteins, oils and nutrients for poultry and aquaculture. The company operates a SeaTac, Washington facility and is building a 42,000-square-foot flagship mealworm production facility in Cashmere, Wash., by converting a former juice factory. Beta Hatch is deploying a hub-and-spoke model with hatchery hubs producing eggs and ranching spokes growing product to scale mealworm production. The new Cashmere site will be powered in part by renewable sources, including waste heat from a neighboring data center, to lower energy needs. Beta Hatch expects the expansion to create 20–30 new operating, engineering and R&D jobs and will keep its SeaTac operation running into 2021 as a support and transition facility. The company has positioned its technology as a sustainable protein source for animal feed and continues to scale its distributed production model. Beta Hatch develops insect-rearing technology to convert organic waste into proteins, oils and nutrients for poultry and aquaculture. Founded in 2015 by PhD entomologist Virginia Emery, the company currently operates out of a facility in SeaTac and plans to move to a flagship facility in Cashmere, Wash. that will be the largest mealworm production facility for animal feed in North America, with capacity to produce a ton of insect protein per day. That Cashmere facility is scheduled to be operational in early 2021 and will be partially powered by waste heat from a neighboring data center. The company has completed the first published assembly of the yellow mealworm genome and will publish it in an open source article to support further research. Beta Hatch currently employs 14 people and plans to add 10–20 more once the Cashmere operation is complete. Beta Hatch was founded by Virginia Emery three years ago to address high costs of animal feed by raising mealworms as an alternative protein. The company currently operates in SeaTac and plans to relocate to the Wenatchee area this summer to lower operating costs and improve employee lifestyle. In Chelan County it is gearing up to build its first commercial flagship facility that expects to produce about 1 ton of insect biomass daily. The planned facility will take advantage of very low electricity costs (as cheap as 3¢/kWh) and will use waste heat from an adjacent data center to reduce energy use. Beta Hatch has a track record of non-dilutive and investor funding, having raised $4.8 million via grants and investment from parties including Cavallo Ventures. The company recently won a $135,000 prize at the Flywheel Investment Conference to help with its move and scale-up. Beta Hatch is a Seattle-based company industrializing the production of insects as a sustainable protein source for animal feed. The company is developing tools and processes to grow insects at industrial scale and has focused work around black soldier fly technology. It closed a $2.1M seed funding round to build a precommercial facility and continue refining its technology and process. Beta Hatch has partnered with Texas-based EVO Conversion Systems and joined The EVO Consortium to access fundamental BSF technologies and collaborate with other insect-rearing developers. The company plans to offer a comprehensive rearing workshop through the consortium to help establish production standards for American producers. Virginia Emery is Founder and CEO.

Total raised

$159M

Funding rounds

5

Latest round

Equity

Latest activity

Aug 2021