Vietnam’s Cricket One bags seed funding in round led by 500 Startups, Masik

Vietnamese cricket protein producer Cricket One has raised an undisclosed sum in a seed round co-led by 500 Startups and Singapore-based Masik Enterprises.

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Cricket One co-founders Nam Dang and Bicky Nguyen established the company in 2017 to provide environmentally friendly food sources beyond Southeast Asian countries and further the livelihood of farmers.

Dang said that in Vietnam, crickets mature naturally in 28 days and takes in organic farm byproducts as feed. “By outsourcing crickets growing to specially trained local farmers, not only do we achieve cost advantage, but we also ensure better local incomes and community development and better global sustainability,” he said.

Cricket One said it only needs 2 liters of water and 1.5 kilograms of feed to produce 1 kilogram of edible weight. “In fact, with each hectare able to produce over 250 tons of pure protein per year, it is almost 50x more productive than growing soybeans for the famous Impossible Burger,” said Masik Enterprises director Mikhail Zeldovich, referencing the flagship product of US plant-based meat producer Impossible Foods.

According to Dang, the company has already established a full production chain on the farming side of its business. Cricket One plans to use the new funds to invest in research and development and further study the cricket protein structure.

The company claims it is currently managing over 25 million crickets monthly. Its flagship product, a cricket powder made of 60% to 70% protein and 7% fiber, is being sold to bakeries and chip makers in the US and Europe. It is also now testing new products – such as sausages and mayonnaise made with cricket protein and oil as well as protein beverages made out of soluble cricket powder – in Vietnam, Russia, and Korea.

Ento, a Malaysia-based foodtech firm, is another startup looking to take on Impossible Foods with its alternative protein products made with crickets. It sells a range of whole-roasted crickets and is working on new product lines using powder from the insect. It secured an undisclosed amount of funding from Singapore-based Rapzo Capital earlier this month.

Another player in the region is Singapore’s Nutrition Technologies. Unlike Cricket One and Ento, it uses black soldier fly larvae as a sustainable alternative source to produce protein.

Earlier this year, Nutrition Technologies received an undisclosed amount of funding in a series A round led by Openspace Ventures and Seeds Capital.