NASEKOMO
Nasekomo is an insect rearing company currently producing insect protein and oil for the animal feed industry, and insect fertilizer for the agriculture industry. Leveraging the principles of circular economy and zero-waste production, Nasekomo is the first and at present the only insect rearing factory in South-East Europe, located in Bulgaria.
Nasekomo specializes in technologies and genetics for bioconversion through the Black Soldier Fly (Hermetia illucens) insect, considered as one of the most powerful bioconversion agents. Its larvae grow 10 000 times in 12 days, turning 60% of what they eat into body mass, packed with quality nutrients and rich in protein.
The products from BSF bioconversion are insect flour and insect oil, which are natural and healthy for the diets of fish, poultry, pigs and pets, and represent a sustainable alternative to soybean and wild fish-based feed. Soil fertilizer is the third product from BSF bioconversion leftovers (so called frass) and is highly valued for organic farming.
Wide application range of insect-based products means an enormous market opportunity and includes pet, aqua and pig & poultry feed sector, soil nutrition (compost, fertilizer, soil remediation material) and technical applications (chitin and chitosan), renewable energy, pharma & cosmetics industry, and prospectively human food sector in the longer run.
Work Package
WP2, WP3, WP6, WP7, WP8
Partner role in the project
Within the EcoeFISHent project, Nasekomo will perform activities related to the development and validation of FFS and FCP bioconversion by larvae breeding for oil, chitin, and fertilizer. Nasekomo will develop and optimize a series of diets to improve nutrition, growth, and welfare of Black Soldier Fly (BSF) larvae, while incorporating feedstock FPS biomasses as ingredients, whose nutritional and physical characteristics will be used together with fermentation and fractionalization pre-processing to develop larvae dietary mixtures.
Furthermore, based on the developed diets and using under licenses Nasekomo’s insect rearing technology, a local insect bioconversion pilot unit will be set up.
Team
Marc Bolard
Co-Founder, R&D and Operations
His previous experience includes leading the dairy cattle genetic improvement program at XY-Evolutions; redesign of the leading French dairy cattle improvement program following the arrival of genomic selection in the industry – he led setting up of female donor stations, networks of heifers for embryo transfer, building legal framework; building of strong genetic expertise as part of building the dairy industry in Vietnam; as well as expertise in using maternal information for quantitative trait locus (QTL) detection in (grand)daughter design.
At Nasekomo, Marc built and launched the process and technology to grow from scratch and scaled the operations to enable EU market deliveries of insect-based products in 18 months. Marc’s role in the project will be to lead the R&D and Operations teams.
Ioanna Mincheva
Project Manager
Ioanna has ample project management experience, having managed projects and programs in the fields of innovation, education, digital technology, civil society organizations, the environment and sustainable development. Ioanna is the author of case studies and a municipal program related to innovation and digital technologies in education. In Nasekomo, Ioanna is responsible for project management, coordination, and communication activities.
Maria Alexandrova
Head of Innovation Projects and Sustainability
Maria has over 14 years of experience in managing national and international projects and specializes in innovation management, R&D of green technologies and products, and sustainability management. At Nasekomo, she is responsible for the company strategy for sustainability and its implementation across business units and projects. Before joining Nasekomo, Maria managed the Bulgarian edition of the largest Accelerator for green entrepreneurship in Europe – EIT Climate-KIC Accelerator. She has been a member of the Horizon 2020 National Contact Network on the topic “Climate, Environment, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials”, and is certified manager of innovation promotion at EIT Climate-KIC.
Kamen Vasilev
Industrialization Director
In Nasekomo, Kamen leads functional and concept design of processes and equipment for industrial implementation of lab- and pilot-scale developments. Responsible for the process end-to-end from ideation and design to managing the team and procurement. Responsible for building, testing and improvement of prototypes of the future large-scale industrial equipment and for the definition of requirements for the required production locations and buildings.
In EcoeFISHent, Kamen is responsible for the set up of the local insect bioconversion pilot unit.
Adelina Petrova
PhD, Chief entomologist
She works on different insect systems and has a wide range of skills related to molecular entomology, insect biochemistry, insect functional genomics, microscopy and imaging, as well as grant writing and lab management. She has a very comprehensive understanding of insect biology acquired from over 20 years of studies and research investigations. Her research interests are related to the development of innovative systems for sustainable living.
Mirena Zhelezarova
Bioprocess engineer
Mirena is part of the R&D team at Nasekomo, specialized in Black Soldier Fly nutrition. Before joining the team at Nasekomo, Mirena was an Analytical Chemist at NIK, a Bulgaria cluster specialized in the implementation of automation and digitalisation technologies in agriculture.
