Our disruptive social enterprise, Aspire, aims to improve access to edible insects worldwide. We develop and distribute affordable and sustainable insect farming technologies for countries with established histories of entomophagy, or insect-consumption. Our farming solutions stabilize the supply of edible insects year-round, drastically improving and expanding the economic ecosystem surrounding insect consumption in the regions serviced. Not only do we create income stability for rural farmers, we aim to have a wider social impact by lowering the price of edible insects. This is central to our mission of increasing access to highly nutritious edible insects amongst the poorest, and therefore neediest, members of society.
Location: United States, Texas, Austin
Employees: 51-200
Founded date: 2014
Investors 3
| Date | Name | Website |
| 01.06.2022 | TELUS Vent... | telus.com |
| - | Northern P... | northernpr... |
| 18.05.2024 | JC2 Ventur... | jc2venture... |
Mentions in press and media 24
| Date | Title | Description |
| 05.06.2026 | Innovafeed raises $59m, scales production, cuts R&D headcount as insect ag hits “industrialization phase” | French insect ag firm Innovafeed has raised a €51 million ($59 million) round and unveiled plans to consolidate activities at its commercial-scale black soldier fly larvae production facility in Nesle, France. The move is part of a reorgani... |
| 02.06.2026 | FlyBox founder: Insect farming can work in Europe, but not as a VC-backed protein play | The insect farming industry is going through a “painful correction” says FlyBox founder Larry Kotch. Ÿnsect, Enorm, Aspire, and others all failed for different reasons, but one common thread was that they assumed the market would pay premiu... |
| 26.03.2026 | Insect ag recalibrates after a brutal shakeout: Where are the key players now? | The insect ag industry is littered with the corpses of startups who found out the hard way that scaling biological systems is not as easy as it looks, prompting a wave of think pieces suggesting its days are numbered. Despite the sector’s w... |
| 07.05.2025 | BREAKING: Canadian insect ag pioneer Aspire pursues court-supervised rescue deal | Canadian insect ag pioneer Aspire Food Group has laid off more staff amid ongoing uncertainty over tariffs and trade, but says it is actively pursuing a deal through a court-supervised process that could enable it to preserve operations. Sp... |
| 12.12.2024 | Brief: Aspire raises “meaningful amount” to keep insect ag operation going | Insect ag pioneer Aspire Food Group—which laid off two-thirds of its employees and scaled back production at its cricket farming facility in London, Ontario last month—has secured fresh funding. CEO David Rosenberg—who cofounded vertical fa... |
| 11.11.2024 | Exclusive: Aspire Food Group cuts staff, temporarily scales back production at cricket farm | Insect ag pioneer Aspire Food Group has laid off 100 of its 150 employees and is temporarily scaling back production at its new cricket farming facility in London, Ontario, AgFunderNews has learned. David Rosenberg, a board member at Aspire... |
| 27.09.2024 | Insect farmer Ÿnsect in ‘advanced discussions’ with investors after filing safeguard plan with French court | Ÿnsect—one of the highest-profile players in the nascent insect farming space—has filed a safeguard plan with a commercial court in Évry, France, in a bid to stay afloat as it raises funds to expand production at its mealworm facility in Am... |
| 09.04.2024 | From novelty to necessity? The evolution of insect farming | On paper, insect farming ticks all the right boxes. Black soldier fly larvae (BSFL), mealworms and crickets can transform food and agricultural waste into high-quality protein, oil and fertilizer at record speed with a fraction of the input... |
| 21.03.2023 | Aspire Food Group ramps up world’s largest cricket production facility, scouts for 2nd site | If crickets—which pack an attractive nutritional punch with a low environmental impact—are going to carve out a meaningful space in the alternative protein market, two things must happen, says Aspire Food Group cofounder Mohammed Ashour. Co... |
| 03.03.2023 | Meet the founder: Insect bar pioneer Pat Crowley, investor short-term thinking ‘is one of the most frustrating things in this business’ | Armed with cash from a Kickstarter campaign and a fervent belief that edible insects were the next big thing for human and planetary health, Pat Crowley introduced many Americans to the concept of eating bugs back in 2012 with the launch of... |
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