The company’s scalable technology for breeding mealworms has now been patented.
The team around founder Gia Tien Ngo (front row, second from left) - here at the company's site in Bruchsal - relies on automated mealworm production. One year later, the young company already had 20 employees and an efficient, sustainable production line for manufacturing mealworm products from the ground up. Alpha-Protein GmbH was officially founded in May 2020. Ngo and a small, dedicated team received funding from the German government's EXIST funding programme and subsequently from the Baden-Württemberg government’s Young Innovators programme, and set out to establish a company in late 2017. The mealworms were given feed made from leftovers, preferably locally sourced. The idea of a sustainable insect farm was born. However, Ngo not only wanted the product itself to be sustainable, but also the way it was produced. Animal feed appeared to be an economically interesting option. Back in Germany, he thought about how insects could be used as a sustainable and high-quality protein source on a broad basis. "Mealworms, or more precisely the larvae of the mealworm beetle, have a much higher protein content than chicken, around fifty-five percent more, and taste slightly nutty," Ngo reports.Įver since, he’s been fascinated by insect protein. So Ngo came up with the idea of adding mealworm meal to fruit smoothies to provide a high-quality source protein. However, his flatmates would not have been very pleased if he had cooked meat in the flat. While the ambitious athlete had nothing against delicious fish meals, he was nevertheless looking for a cheaper source of protein to maintain his performance level. While there, he rented a room in a flat which he shared with pescovegetarians.
After completing his master's degree in psychology & management in Frankfurt, Ngo attended Boston University to round off his university education with an MS in global marketing management. This was the case for the founder of Alpha-Protein GmbH, Gia Tien Ngo. Innovations often arise from solutions to everyday problems.
Gia Tien Ngo is founder and managing director of Alpha-Protein GmbH.
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