PARIS — French insect processor Ÿnsect announced Jan. 25 it has joined the World Economic Forum’s Global Innovators Community, representing the first French ag-tech startup to be a part of the group.

The World Economic Forum is a community of political, business, cultural and other societal leaders designed to drive and shape the agendas of various industries, regional and global initiatives. Within that group, the Global Innovators Community is made up of early-stage companies developing new approaches to benefit and improve the public and private sectors. Membership of the Global Innovators Community is invite-only.

Ÿnsect’s invitation to join the group follows a $372 million funding round closed in October 2020, which will benefit the company’s development of a vertical insect farming and processing operations in Amiens, France. The facility is expected to open in late 2021 and will be the first carbon negative and largest vertical farm globally, Ÿnsect said.

“With climate change and increasing populations worldwide, we need to produce more food with less available land and fewer resources,” said Antoine Hubert, co-founder, president and chief executive officer of Ÿnsect. “We are thrilled to join the Global Innovators community as the first French agtech startup and to work with other leading start-ups and scale-ups to improve the state of the world.”

Overall, Ÿnsect expects that being a part of the World Economic Forum’s Global Innovators Community will help it in its mission to combat climate change, improve global ecosystems, preserve the environment and biodiversity, and build a more sustainable future.

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