Diverting organic (food) waste from landfills is the #1 most actionable item to address climate change.
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The U.S. generates over 100M tons of food waste each year, sending billions of dollars of nutrients to landfill.
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Project Drawdown, the authority on impact metrics, deems diverting organics waste as the top climate priority.
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Finally joining these economic and environmental imperatives: state and national regulations (i.e. CA must reduce organic waste 75% by 2025, yet lacks scalable technology to do so).
Sources: Civil Eats; ReFED
OPPORTUNITY: ORGANICS WASTE
Insects eat organic waste in nature.
Chapul Farms builds industrial-scale insect farms to eliminate organic waste.
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Organic waste is a big problem and the #1 most actionable item to address climate change.
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Over 40% of our food supply goes to waste (aka over $940B lost every year).
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If food waste were a country, it would be the 3rd largest GHG emitting, right after the US and China
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And it’s fixable, without inventing any new tech.
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By breeding one insect over and over again.
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We make money solving this growing challenge (and from 2 other revenue streams).
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Chapul Designs, Engineers, and Builds Custom insect facilities next to waste streams to eliminate waste.
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​Chapul Farms designs, builds, and operates modular insect farms that turn organic waste into high-value food and agricultural products as a model of circular food systems of the future.
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Our end-to-end project development services recover nutrients with a nature-based solution that improves efficiency, reduces emissions, and improves domestic supply.
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In partnership with Nexus PMG, who has established a record for project execution through long-term project success, we distinguish ourselves from other insect industry companies that have little experience.
OPPORTUNITY: CLOSED LOOP FOOD PRODUCTION POWERED BY INSECTS
For a $50M capex investment, Chapul Farms builds infrastructure to transform waste-to-value (insect facilities produce proteins/fats and biofertilizer products.
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Project Unit Economics:
INPUTS: ​
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$50M Capex to build facility (30 year lifespan)
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Each facility can process 50,000 tons per year of waste
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Each facility requires minimal water and energy inputs (relying instead on the metabolic energy of insects).
OUTPUTS:
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Annual revenue: $27M
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Jobs created: 60
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GHG Diverted: 7M tons/year
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Soil Health Contribution: 50k acres/year
Organic waste is sent to a Chapul Facility.
All that's left after 2 weeks is:
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Frass: super-soil, frass, puts much-needed microbial life back into the soil that has only 40 grow cycles left if business continues as usual.
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Larvae: restore biodiversity to gut microbiomes of animals.
Our business model has 3 core business components.
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Custom insect facility project dev and related services;
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Insect product sales and distribution (from the products that come out of those facilities); and
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Services provided at our physical lab - the Chapul Innovation Center.
We have a >$1B Project Pipeline.
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We’re looking at being shovel-ready for that first commercial project this year;
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That is followed by 20 other facilities ($1B pipeline).
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Our whole $1B pipeline will solve 1% of the national organic waste problem … that’s an impact.
OPPORTUNITY: SCALE PIPELINE
$1B Project Pipeline
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Our whole $1B pipeline will solve 1% of the national organic waste problem … that’s an impact.
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In addition to the demand for industrial solutions to organic waste, we have growing supply-side demand, too. "When are you going to produce 1M tons of insect larvae? That’s what we need." Our pipeline will make 1/10th of that.
Animal feed production cannot keep up with demand.
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The pet food, chicken feed, and fish feed sectors (together, markets total over $400B) are all rapidly growing but lack the inputs to sustain growth. Separately, companies are already looking for ways to make their supply chains more sustainable.
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Animal health outcomes are worsening. Even though over 70% of all antibiotics are used in livestock, disease poses a major risk to species. Livestock mortality rates are increasing, as animal welfare decreases.
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Aquaculture is the fastest growing food sector but lacks feed inputs to meet demand.
Sources: Rabobank;
OPPORTUNITY: ANIMAL FEED
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Insects are a natural part of animal diets.
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Chapul Farms' facilities create insect larvae from food waste.
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Larvae can be sold into the pet food, poultry feed, and aquafeed markets.
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Insect ingredients decarbonize ingredient supply and boost animal immunity.
"Market Opportunities: craving alternatives to the status quo. A frontrunner for alternative pet food wether that’s pet feed, poultry feed, or aqua feed with significant benefits (decarbonize supply chain; premium health benefits)"​
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"Increase in immunological health in chickens, pets, etc… constant stream of good news the deeper we dive on insects with animal health. "
Soil depletion is f*cking farmers and our future.
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Yes, the fossil-fuel-heavy fertilizers and technologies of the 1970s allowed us to feed a booming population, but it also killed our soils.
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Extractive, linear production killed soil and left farmers today dependent on costly inputs like fertilizers and pesticides.
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Our soil has less than 60 years of productivity left if business continues as usual. Demands on land continue to rise while soil and crop health and biodiversity decline.
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Depleted soils require increasing amounts of chemicals and pesticides. These inputs are toxic, polluting, expensive, and imported (putting domestic production at risk).
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We send over $5B-worth of nutrients to landfills as waste.
Sources: Scientific American; The Economist; Bloomberg; Will Canine;
OPPORTUNITY: SOIL HEALTH
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Chapul Farms' facilities create insect frass from food waste.
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Frass can be sold into the biofertilizer and soil health markets.
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Insect frass bolsters natural plant defense, restores beneficial bacteria to soils, improves soil structure and water retention, increases crop nutrient bioavailiability, and improves soil's carbon carrying capacity.
Frass represents a solution for the United States to break away from the harmful synthetic fertilizer imports (dependence on these imports are not in our long-term best interest.) Let’s build our own fertilizer that’s healthier for the future. Insects can help do that at a national scale.
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Chapul Farms is well-positioned to rapidly scale domestic production of natural soil inputs. Our early trials with cannabis companies are compelling, with a 30% increase in yield from the addition of frass alone. We are co-located with the renowned teams Soil Food Web and Tainable.
Insect Agriculture Development Company
Unleashing the regenerative potential of insect agriculture.
Earth's Design. Modern Application.
Chapul Farms designs, builds, and operates modular insect farms that turn organic waste into high-value food and agricultural products as a model of circular food systems of the future.
AS SEEN ON:
OPPORTUNITY
Our generation's greatest business opportunity is to mend the food system for future ones: the decade of decarbonization.
"With private equity and infrastructure funds rapidly increasing their allocations toward reducing our carbon footprint, we are witnessing a historic supply demand imbalance between available capital and places to deploy it.
Put simply, the evolution of the capital markets into sustainable infrastructure investments has significantly outpaced the actual energy transition efforts itself. This has resulted in valuation premiums for those that can demonstrate a quality pipeline of projects that will accelerate capital deployment.
Over the past 12 months there have been multiple companies with 1 asset in operation ($10-20M annual EBITDA) and a pipeline consisting of $1B+ potential capital deployment, with valuations north of $600M. Upon successfully breaking ground on Chapul Farms first commercial facility and advancing what is already a robust pipeline of additional projects, it is reasonable to expect a significant valuation increase."
A new, regenerative approach to food production is needed.
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Food, feed, and fertilizer are the most critical parts of the energy sector.
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Agriculture presents the highest ROI opportunity for energy transition investments that seek impact and returns at scale. Circular agriculture reduces our reliance on petrochemical inputs while improving domestic food security.
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Benefits of closed-loop food production powered by insects:
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Improve soil without chemicals.
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70-90% fewer greenhouse gases than composting.
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U.S. can become net exporter of insect feed & frass.
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Could divert 1 million tons of waste per year.
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BUSINESS
Building critical infrastructure to decarbonize our food system.
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What: Our team is building critical infrastructure to decarbonize our food system. Instead of betting on Mars, we're investing in fixing our existing food system with nature-based (evolution-backed), common-sense solutions to the biggest climate challenges. We build custom insect facilities next to organics waste streams, converting waste into local animal feed and fertilizer products. Our partner in all of this is the amazing team Nexus PMG.
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How: Our business has three main components: (1) commercial project development (build, own, operate custom insect farms next to organic waste streams); (2) insect product sales and distribution (insect farms produce animal feed and biofertilizer ingredients); (3) related research and lab services.
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Why: Restoring biodiversity and resiliency to our food system by re-weaving insects (a keystone species, meaning ecosystems fall apart without them.) Chapul Farms is re-weaving insects back into our food system to perform the critical functions they evolved to - eliminating waste, producing proteins and fats for animals to eat, restoring soil health, decarbonizing food/feed, and closing the loop on food.
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Why Us: We’re set aside by our custom industrial facilities, our exclusive partnership with Nexus Program Management Group, our team of top leaders from the insect industry (our CEO is also the chair of the board of the CEIF), returning investors like Mark Cuban, our project pipeline of >$1B, and our business model that solves waste at industrial scales and generates products for the multi-billion dollar markets of aquafeed, chicken feed, pet food, and biofertilizer ingredients.
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Why now: This fundraise gets us to our biggest inflection point: breaking ground on our first commercial insect facility.
OPPORTUNITY: IMPACT
Insects are an impact unicorn.
Chapul Farms has a solid solution that's tangible, real, and common-sense: our $1B project pipeline is staged to build insect farms to replace landfills, diverting over 150M GHG per year, restoring over 1M acres of soil per year, and more.
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The pipeline represents a nature-based solution to waste management, soil health, protein production, and circular agriculture most broadly.
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Organics Waste Diversion: 1M tons/yr; GHG Savings: 150M tons/yr; Soil Health Reach: 1M acres/yr
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A single insect facility has the potential to divert more CO2e in one year than all Tesla EVs that were sold in 2020.
LEARN MORE
Chapul Farms Assets
Tier 1:
4 minute mini doc: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCIef9AoaLo&t=9s
Recent Headline about Series A (covers progress from Seed Round)
Tier 2:
White Paper: BSFL & Circular Agriculture
White Paper: BSFL & Aquaculture
Facility Tour Shown here
The Ecosystem of Insect Agriculture
Chapul Farms is active across the spectrum of insect agriculture development. We work with a variety of clients to incorporate insects and insect-based research into overlapping areas of impact.
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We work with you to develop a customized approach to how your organization and initiatives can benefit from the vast potential to engage with the circle that is insect agriculture.
Chapul Innovation Center
McMinnville, OR
The Chapul Innovation Center supports the basic and applied research needs of insect agriculture and supports larger project development that will accelerate the climate and soil health impacts of insect agriculture.
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Here, we evaluate insect biology at benchtop, pilot, demonstration, and commercial scale.
Services
End-to-End Project Development
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Feasibility Analysis
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Optimized Feedstock Formulations
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Bioconversion Evaluation
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Preliminary Economic Analysis
Feedstock Analysis & Development
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Project Execution Design and Schedule
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Procurement and Contract Plan
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Project Control Estimate
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Commercial Pilot Design
Front End Engineering & Design
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Insect and Frass Distribution
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Operation and Maintenance Services
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Optimize Current Operations
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Biotechnology Support
Full System Build & Operation
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Cooperative Advantage
Industry Leader
Chapul’s CEO appointed as “Industry Board Chair” for National Science Foundation's Center for Environmental Sustainability Through Insect Farming.
Uniquely Partnered
Internationally renowned climate project developers Nexus PMG lend experience, track record for excellence, and the capacity to scale quickly with team of 100 + engineers.
Media
