Brief: Aspire raises “meaningful amount” to keep insect ag operation going

Insect ag pioneer Aspire Food Group—which laid off two-thirds of its employees and scaled back production at its cricket farming facility in London, Ontario last month—has secured fresh funding.

CEO David Rosenberg—who cofounded vertical farming startup AeroFarms and took on the CEO role at Aspire late last year—told AgFunderNews that, “It is a meaningful amount of money, but more money is needed later in 2025.”

Rosenberg, who told us that he plans to “hire back up” next summer after making improvements to its process, told us last month that he was “working to secure financing” as “demand still remains strong. But we have to scale up and produce consistently.”

One former member of staff told us that everything had happened very suddenly during the recent mass layoffs: “We were handed termination letters after our shift; that was shocking.”

One insect industry source added: “ I think to be competitive with insects other than BSFL, they had to go ‘all in’ in automation, but with insects we’ve learned that it’s not an easy path. I think they’ve stalled in term of bioconversion rates and ramp up in the last few years, but they were making great progress. However, the financial market might not be that patient.”