While rivals in Europe's insect protein sector have stumbled badly, Finnish company Volare is demonstrating that a disciplined approach to scaling can work. The firm has just finished building Volare 01, a 10,000-square-metre production facility in Pori that will manufacture up to 5,000 tonnes of insect protein and 2,000 tonnes of insect oil each year, sourced from food-industry waste streams.
The factory represents a 1,000-fold expansion from Volare's pilot operation, yet was delivered on time and within its €15 million capital budget. The company has now raised €7.1 million in fresh investment through Springvest, backed by both new and existing investors including Maki.vc, to support the facility's ramp-up and prepare for additional plants.
From research to industrial reality in five years
Volare was founded in 2021 by three co-founders who brought complementary expertise to the venture. Tuure Parviainen, the company's co-founder and chief science officer, is an agronomist who previously studied biomass at the University of Helsinki and spent time in the biogas sector. Matti Tähtinen, co-founder and chief technology officer, trained as an engineer and conducted research on energy and circular economy systems at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. Jarna Hyvönen, who joined as CEO, came from Finland's largest waste management company, where she developed strategies to cut food waste in restaurants.
The three identified black soldier flies as an efficient organism for converting food-industry side streams into protein, oil, and fertiliser. Volare's proprietary process, which spans from larvae rearing through to finished ingredients, draws on technology that originated from VTT research. The company has adapted the approach to the specific waste streams it processes and developed its own strain of the insect.
Volare 01 proves that our technology and production model work at industrial scale. 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.
Jarna Hyvönen, CEO and co-founder of Volare
Why other insect protein companies have failed
Europe's insect protein sector has experienced a string of high-profile collapses despite receiving hundreds of millions in investment. French company Ÿnsect, which raised over €600 million, entered judicial liquidation in 2025 after the French government cited technical difficulties, construction delays, cost overruns, and commercial problems. Denmark's ENORM, which secured €50 million in 2022 to build a large-scale black soldier fly facility, was declared bankrupt on 30 October 2025 following a failed restructuring attempt.
Germany's FarmInsect offers another cautionary tale. The Munich startup, founded in 2020, developed a decentralised model allowing farmers to rear black soldier fly larvae on-site using farm waste. It raised €8 million in 2023 to expand, and attracted roughly €16.2 million in total equity and public funding. However, the company entered insolvency proceedings in 2026 and shut down after failing to find a buyer, hampered by high production costs, low prices for competing proteins like soy and fishmeal, and financing delays.
You have to succeed in so many different areas, and it hasn't been easy for us either. You need customer buy-in and relationships with customers who are ready to purchase your product. The regulation needs to be there, which it wasn't before 2017. You also need technology that makes sense, the ability to execute, and the science. You need many different skills within the organisation from the very beginning, and people who take ownership of what they do. That's what makes it quite hard. I think some companies failed in one of these areas, which then turned into much bigger problems.
Jarna Hyvönen
Converting a printing facility into a protein plant
Rather than constructing a new building, Volare converted a former newspaper printing facility into Volare 01 in just nine months, keeping capital spending lean. Hyvönen noted that this approach "probably saved us at least a year compared with building a new facility." The existing structure proved ideal for the company's needs: "Printing houses also have very sturdy floors designed for large machinery, so they work quite nicely for our purposes."
Three pillars of production efficiency
Volare's competitive advantage rests on three foundations, according to Hyvönen. The first is the inherent efficiency of the black soldier fly itself. She explained: "First, we're using an organism that nature has already made extremely efficient. There's a reason so many companies work with the black soldier fly. We've also developed our own strain, adapted to the specific side streams we use."
The second advantage stems from Volare's origins as a VTT spin-off. The research institute brings decades of experience in developing food and feed ingredients and processing technologies, which Volare has integrated into its production approach, including the selection and development of individual processes. The third factor is Volare's decision to manage industrialisation in-house rather than outsourcing to external consultants.
For our first industrial-scale factory, we haven't brought in external consultants for project management or engineering. We work with suppliers, of course, but we keep project control in-house. That gives us much greater control over costs, from capital expenditure to how the factory will operate. When you're building a factory for the first time, nobody else is going to know exactly how it should run.
Jarna Hyvönen
The outcome is striking: Volare's production model requires four to ten times less capital expenditure, roughly 50 per cent fewer staff, and 30 per cent less energy in end-product processing than competing insect protein producers.
Testing before scaling
Much of Volare's technology relies on smaller, modular units that can be replicated as the company grows. This allowed the firm to validate its processes over time rather than attempting to scale untested technology. The demonstration factory operated continuously for more than four years before the new industrial facility came online, and it remains in operation today, using the same underlying production principles.
You can test, refine, and optimise every detail of the process. A one per cent gain in efficiency becomes much more significant when you're operating at industrial scale.
Jarna Hyvönen
The pilot facility also served as a showcase for potential customers and a source of product samples for testing and commercial launches. Hyvönen said: "We've been able to show customers exactly what we're doing, invite them to see the process firsthand, and provide samples they can test and use in commercial products."
A lean operation powered by electricity
Volare 01 is designed to run with just four people per shift, relying on automation and established industrial technologies to keep operations simple. Hyvönen explained: "Our factory is approximately 10,000 square metres, and it can be operated by four people per shift. That's how it was designed. It's a big area for a four-person team, and that's a significant difference between us and many of our earlier competitors. We measure what takes time rather than simply accepting existing ways of doing things."
The facility runs entirely on electricity rather than natural gas or other fossil fuels. Hyvönen noted: "One thing I appreciated when I joined my co-founders was their fundamental thinking about how industry should be built in the future. We firmly believe that industry is moving towards electrification, which is why we've designed all our processes around electricity rather than natural gas or other alternatives."
Beyond the overall production model, Volare has developed patented technologies and proprietary production designs to boost efficiency and product quality. A key differentiator is its dry-processing method. Hyvönen stated: "Our technology isn't just about the overall production model. We also have patents, our own production designs, and a dry-processing method that gives us high product quality while reducing energy costs."
Rather than reinventing every production stage, Volare combines established industrial technologies with its own innovations. The result is strong product performance: Volare's protein meal achieves over 90 per cent digestibility and is already in commercial use in aquafeeds, pet foods, and poultry feeds.
Competing with soy and fishmeal
Cost has been a major obstacle to scaling insect protein. Volare's advantage is that its protein is produced locally from existing food-industry waste streams rather than virgin materials. The FAO's 2026 report found that 84.5 per cent of assessed marine fish stocks were either fished at their maximum sustainable level or overfished in 2023.
There's no more fish in the sea, pretty much, that you could make fishmeal out of. Of course, this depends on the area, but overall, fishmeal production isn't increasing. It's a finite source of protein.
Jarna Hyvönen
El Niño events have prompted some fishmeal-producing countries to restrict fishing seasons or quotas, driving up prices. Hyvönen added: "At the same time, industries using fishmeal are growing by perhaps five to ten per cent annually, while the amount of fishmeal available isn't growing. So other sources of protein are needed."
Building customer relationships in the Nordic region
Volare has developed its initial customer base through partnerships with Nordic pet food manufacturers, many of which were exploring insect protein for the first time. Hyvönen explained: "Many pet food companies, especially smaller ones, have an entrepreneurial mindset. They're interested in trying something new and being part of building something different. That's been a great foundation for our partnerships."
The company now works with businesses of various scales. Volare's protein has been in commercial use since 2022, appearing in insect-based dog treats made with Alvar Pet, insect-based cat food from Dagsmark (a Vafo Group brand), and rainbow trout feed through a partnership with Alltech Fennoaqua. The protein has also been used in organic poultry feed.
A substantial portion of Volare 01's production capacity has already been committed through offtake agreements, including with Skretting, one of the world's largest aquafeed producers, and a major global chemical company. Skretting has been testing Volare's insect protein since the early stages of their partnership.
Expansion plans with disciplined focus
Volare is now concentrating on bringing Volare 01 up to full capacity while preparing for additional facilities. Hyvönen stated: "Our focus right now is commissioning and ramping up the first factory, but we're already planning the next one. The goal is to replicate the model we've developed across Europe and beyond."
Despite potential opportunities to diversify, the company has ruled out exploring alternative insects or protein sources. Hyvönen said: "We're convinced that the black soldier fly is the right choice. Of course, there are opportunities to develop new product lines, but we're a small team, and we want to stay very focused."
This discipline extends to how Volare manages growth and spending. Hyvönen noted: "We have an industrial mindset. We want to build an industrial company, which means being sensible about spending money, focusing on operational efficiency, and delivering real value to customers." The second factory is planned to have roughly five times the protein production capacity of the first.
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.
Jarna Hyvönen
Source: Tech.eu
