The Finnish producer plans to repeat its Pori factory at five times the protein capacity, less than a year after a far larger European rival was ordered into liquidation.
Finnish start-up Volare has raised €7.1m to prepare a second insect protein plant. It raised the money through Springvest, a Finnish investment platform for unlisted growth companies. New and existing investors took part, including Maki.vc, although Volare named no lead investor.
Springvest set the share price at €2.80. That gives Volare a fully diluted valuation of about €63.8m before the new money and €74.4m after it. The round also includes an option programme for Springvest.
Five times the capacity of Volare 01
The second insect protein plant would have around five times the protein capacity of Volare 01, the company’s first factory. Volare expects construction to start in 2027, probably outside Finland. It wants to build near partners that produce food waste streams. It’s also in talks with several global food, drinks and farm companies about sites.
Volare 01 sits in a former newspaper printing plant in Pori. It cost €15m and covers 10,000 square metres. The factory can make up to 5,000 tonnes of insect protein and 2,000 tonnes of insect oil a year.
Volare 01 replaced a demonstration plant in Hyvinkää when production moved to Pori in 2025. Volare describes the jump as a 1,000-fold increase in scale. Its ramp-up runs to the end of 2026, so 2027 will be the first full year of sales.
Larvae, side streams and pet food
Volare raises black soldier fly larvae on side streams from the food industry. In turn, the larvae become protein meal, insect oil and a raw material for fertiliser. The company says its protein meal is more than 90 per cent digestible.
Its products have been on sale since 2022. Customers include Alvar Pet for dog treats, Dagsmark for cat food and Alltech Fennoaqua for rainbow trout feed. Volare also claims it needs four to ten times less capital than other insect producers. It says it uses about half the staff and 30 per cent less energy in processing.
Jarna Hyvönen, chief executive of Volare, said the first plant had proved the concept. “Volare 01 proves that our technology and production model work at industrial scale,” Hyvönen said. Hyvönen added: “We delivered the factory on schedule and on budget.”
Founders and earlier funding
Tuure Parviainen and Matti Tähtinen founded Volare in 2021, drawing on years of research at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. Hyvönen took over as chief executive in June 2025, and Parviainen became chief science officer.
In May 2025, Volare announced a €26m funding package of equity, mezzanine finance, senior loans and public money. Backers then included Maki.vc, Firstminute Capital, Springvest, the Finnish Climate Fund, Finnvera and Norion Bank.
A sector under cost pressure
Cost is still the central question for insect protein. Insect meal sells for $3,800 to $6,000 a tonne, according to ONEI, against $1,815 for fishmeal and $541 for soy. Volare’s investor memorandum targets production costs of around €1,000 a tonne at scale.
Investors also have reason for caution after a big failure in the sector. French mealworm producer Ÿnsect raised more than $600m, yet a court in Évry ordered it into liquidation after a hearing on 1 December 2025. It had reportedly needed another €130m to scale. Volare’s pitch therefore rests on building cheaply and close to its feedstock.
Smaller European producers have raised far less. Nasekomo raised €8m in January 2024, while FarmInsect raised €8m in 2023 and FlyFeed raised $3m in 2022. By that measure, Volare’s €26m package last year and this new round put it among the better-funded players.
Volare’s investor materials also point to a possible exit between 2027 and 2030. Options include a listing, a sale to private equity or a sale to an industrial buyer.
Hyvönen has set out the next step. “Our next step is to replicate our model from Finland and bring more local, efficient protein production capacity to Europe and beyond,” Hyvönen said. A second insect protein plant that hits Volare’s cost targets would be the clearest test of that plan.
