NEW YORK — Sumitomo Corporation announced a joint investment in Cyns’s seed funding round to help “unlock the next chapter” of black soldier fly (BSF) farming in Latin America. Based in São Paulo, Cyns is a biotechnology company that specializes in sustainable, insect-based animal nutrition.

Cyns’s origins date back to 2015, when the company was a project incubated by Bug Biological Agents. In 2020, the company received its first investment from Lambarin Investimentos, allowing it to open Brazil’s first BSF industrial pilot plant, which also received regulatory approval. Since then, Cyns has introduced its BSF-based ingredients to the animal nutrition market. The company’s ingredients can currently be found in various dog treats, bird feed and exotic pet foods throughout Brazil.

Leveraging Brazil’s natural environment, Cyns has developed a unique, cost competitive horizontal BSF rearing system that offers high bioconversion rates with minimum HVAC requirements, according to the company.

Realizing an opportunity in the insect-based ingredients space, Sumitomo’s Brazil division has invested in Cyns’s latest funding round with Lambarin Investimentos.

“We are excited to support the accelerated growth and distribution of alternative feed ingredients needed for animal feeds in Latin America,” said João Simões, insect protein project leader at Sumitomo Corporation do Brasil S.A. “Ensuring a sustainable supply chain while reducing its carbon footprint is critical in today’s business landscape, and we are proud to partner with Cyns to accomplish this important work.”

Sumitomo and Lambarin’s investment will support Cyns’s next stage of growth, in which the company plans to create a new BSF rearing facility. The facility will offer a capacity of 1,000 MT of BSF meal annually, allowing Cyns to expand into new markets, including dog and cat foods, aquaculture and monogastric livestock throughout Brazil and Latin America. Cyns is also preparing for its next investment round, set for 2026.

“We believe that we have an extremely competitive technology and have developed a very high-quality product,” said João Pisa, director of Cyns. “The partnership with Lambarim and Sumitomo will expand our commercial operations in America and around the world and allow us to scale production at the levels that this business demands.”

Additionally, Sumitomo Corporation do Brasil has established a commercial partnership agreement with Cyns. Through the agreement, Sumitomo will be responsible for application development and R&D, as well as marketing for Cyns’s products in the Americas.

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