Smartbreed taps into the insect breeding market

The trend for insect consumption in Switzerland is growing slowly mainly due to the high prices for insect-based products, which are mainly available as snacks. However, for the insects market to advance and become an alternative to meat in the long term, the production costs must be significantly reduced. From its headquarters in Zufikon, Aargau, Smartbreed GmbH and its team of three members believe that automating the insect breeding the process will result in cost reduction and make the market more attractive.

The startup is offering two breeding solutions. The mealworms breeding kit for beginners with a smaller demand and for breeding professionals with a large demand of several kilos per week. The kit provides cost-effective and fast yields however due to technical and management complexity the tram has optimised the solution to make breeding as simple and time-saving as possible. The second solution is designed for breeding grasshoppers or locusts. The company offers stackable, fully automated breeding boxes in which grasshoppers can be bred cost-effectively with fewer resources locally at the customer's site. The boxes are fully-equipped with sensors to track and optimize the breeding conditions and growth rate of the insects.

One year following incorporation, Smartbreed is commercialising its insect breeding kits for mealworms through its webshop. The kits are available to anyone that is interested in breeding mealworms. Development for the grasshopper kits is in full swing with testing planned with four Zoos in Switzerland. According to Christoph Bertschi, Co-Founder and CEO at SmartBreed, the decision to open the market to end-users was triggered by the feedback from customers interested in small scale insect breeding at home. “Our main focus remains the B2B market with the goal to provide a complete breeding solution, to make insect breeding industrially available and economically attractive,” explains Bertschi.

Since their participation in the Swiss edition of the Global Students Entrepreneur Award (GSEA), the team has been able to collect valuable customer feedback, which was implemented for the development of the breeding boxes. While the team continues to optimise the solution, it counts on the support of research partners, many institutions and experts from Innosuisse, Venture Kick, genisuisse among others.  

Revealing their next plan, Bertischi says: “Our next steps are to distribute our breeding boxes for locusts to four Swiss zoos for testing and to file our patent after which we can start selling locust breeding solution. For mealworms, we want to boost sales with advertising. Additionally, we have found professional partners to further optimize and advance research projects such as feed or light for the insects.”

 (RAN)