- Volare has raised €7.1m to build its second insect protein plant.
- The first factory, built for €15 million, is designed to produce 5,000 tonnes of protein annually.
- Rival Ÿnsect raised over $600M before a French court wound it up.
A former newspaper printing plant in Pori is now an insect protein factory where robots and automated vehicles turn food-industry waste into protein. Volare built the plant for €15 million and announced that it has raised €7.1 million to prepare the second facility.
Volare raised the funds via Springvest, a Finnish investment platform for unlisted growth companies, with a mix of new and existing investors including Maki.vc.
The funding follows a €26 million package announced in May 2025 for plant and technology development. That package comprised equity, mezzanine, senior loans, and public funding from several backers, including Maki.vc, Firstminute Capital, Springvest, the Finnish Climate Fund, Finnvera and Norion Bank.
From a VTT lab to a €15M factory
Co-founders Tuure Parviainen and Matti Tähtinen established Volare in 2021, building on research conducted at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland over several years. Parviainen served as CEO until June 2025, when co-founder Jarna Hyvönen took over as CEO, and Parviainen became chief science officer.
Volare ran a demo plant in Hyvinkää before moving to Pori in 2025. The black soldier fly larvae consume food-industry side streams, which Volare then converts into protein meal, insect oil, and fertiliser raw material. The protein has been commercially available since 2022 in dog treats with Alvar Pet, cat food from Dagsmark (Vafo Group), and rainbow trout feed with Alltech Fennoaqua. The meal is over 90% digestible.
Volare 01 covers 10,000m2 and is designed to produce up to 5,000 tonnes of insect protein and 2,000 tonnes of insect oil per year (a 1,000-fold increase on the demo plant). It’s been running for over 4 years, and Volare reports up to 50% better productivity over that period. Using an existing newspaper print plant has significantly reduced construction requirements.
Volare states it spends 4 to 10 times less capital, employs around 50% fewer people, and uses 30% less energy in end-product processing than other insect producers.
“Volare 01 proves that our technology and production model work at industrial scale,” Hyvönen said in the announcement. “We delivered the factory on schedule and on budget, demonstrating our ability to build production capacity cost-effectively and laying a strong foundation for further growth.”
Ÿnsect’s collapse sets the bar for Volare
Volare is entering a sector where the largest company to raise funds collapsed in December 2025. Insect, the French mealworm producer, raised over $600 million, but still needed another €130 million to scale production at its Ÿnfarm site. A court in Évry ordered Insect into liquidation following a hearing on 1st December 2025.
Other fundraisers also felt the fallout from the collapse. We reported on Nasekomo’s €8 million raise in January 2024 and have been tracking the sector since. FlyFeed in Estonia raised $3 million in 2022, FarmInsect in Germany raised €8 million in 2023, and Beta Bugs in Scotland raised £1.72 million.
Price is still the issue. ONEI reckon insect meal is $3,800- $6,000/tonne as against $1,815 for fishmeal and $541 for soy and see absolutely no sign that the gap is going to close. Volare’s investor memorandum targets production costs of around €1,000/tonne at scale.
Who paid, and at what price
Springvest has set the share price at €2.80. On a fully diluted basis, Volare is valued at approximately €63.8 million pre-money and €74.4 million post-money. The round includes an option programme for Springvest.
The next plant is expected to have around five times the protein capacity of Volare 01. Springvest says construction is expected to start in 2027, likely outside Finland and close to the partners producing the side streams.
The company is currently in discussions with several global food, beverage and agricultural companies about potential sites. Investor materials indicate a potential exit between 2027 and 2030 via a listing, a private equity sale or a sale to an industrial buyer.
“Europe needs significantly more locally produced protein, and we have built a model that can deliver it efficiently and competitively. Our next step is to replicate our model from Finland and bring more local, efficient protein production capacity to Europe and beyond,” Hyvönen said.
It remains unclear whether a €15 million factory can sell 5,000 tonnes at a good price, and whether investors will back a second facility before proving that. Volare 01’s ramp-up through the end of 2026 and its first full year of sales in 2027 should provide answers.
