About Maggot-P
Maggot-P B.V. is a Netherlands-based insect-protein operator that converts pre-consumer food waste into sterile larvae protein and frass fertilizer through closed-loop biological systems. The company is headquartered on the High Tech Campus in Eindhoven, employs 47 staff across three countries, and processed 14,200 tonnes of organic feedstock in 2024.
Founding team
Co-founder · Research
Entomologist, PhD
Marleen leads strain selection and microbiological process control at Maggot-P. Her doctoral work on Hermetia illucens substrate conversion underpins the company's 24-hour feed-to-harvest cycle, and she continues to co-author peer-reviewed research with Wageningen University on heavy-metal bioaccumulation thresholds in Black Soldier Fly larvae.
Co-founder · Operations
Industrial Engineer, MSc
Tom owns facility engineering and partner integrations. He has scaled Maggot-P from a single pilot reactor in Eindhoven to a three-country, 84-tonne-per-day footprint, and oversees the closed-loop separation and pelletizing systems that keep 100% of frass inside the production perimeter.
Manifesto
Maggot-P was founded on a simple thesis: the European food system generates millions of tonnes of pre-consumer organic waste each year, and that waste is a high-grade biological feedstock, not a liability. By treating its conversion as an industrial-engineering discipline — strain engineering, controlled-environment reactors, real-time process telemetry — the company produces two regulated, sellable outputs from material that would otherwise be trucked to incineration or landfill.
Seven years on, the same thesis still frames every technical and commercial decision: measure first, model second, deploy third, and publish the data.
Operational trajectory
Dr. Marleen Visser and Tom Bakker establish Maggot-P B.V. on the High Tech Campus in Eindhoven, with a single pilot reactor and a research collaboration with Wageningen University.
First commercial facility in the Benelux region receives EU 2021/1375 authorization for processed animal protein in aquaculture feed (certification #PAP-2023-0421). Series A closes at €18.4M, led by Astanor Ventures with participation from the Rabobank Food & Agri Fund. Named Startup of the Year at the European AgriFoodTech Innovation Summit in Copenhagen.
Signs an MOU with the Port of Rotterdam covering an estimated 22,000 tonnes/year of municipal organic-waste offtake. Aggregated throughput across all facilities reaches 14,200 tonnes for the year — a 3.1× increase over 2022. Recognized in the 2024 Forward Fooding FoodTech 500 at position #214 globally.
Team grows to 47 full-time staff, including 11 PhD-level researchers. Combined processing capacity across three countries reaches 84 tonnes per day — the 7th-largest insect-protein footprint in Europe by 2024 capacity. Partner retention across 14 B2B contracts holds at 94%.
By the numbers
47
Full-time staff
Including 11 PhD-level researchers across entomology, microbiology, and process engineering.
84t/d
Combined capacity
Operational across three countries; 7th-largest insect-protein footprint in Europe by 2024 capacity.
14,200t
Waste processed in 2024
3.1× the 2022 throughput; batch-level provenance audited by Bureau Veritas since Q1 2024.
5
Patents (granted + pending)
3 granted and 2 pending in the EU and US, covering automated larvae-separation and frass-valorization systems.
14
Active B2B contracts
2024 partner retention rate of 94%, with average contract value of €412,000 per year.
22,000t/yr
Rotterdam MOU offtake
Estimated annual feedstock from the active MOU with the Port of Rotterdam for municipal organic waste.
26mo
Average payback
Validated across 14 active deployments on a 5,000-tonne-per-year contract baseline.
100%
Frass valorized
All frass is pelletized on-site and sold to partner farms — zero organic waste leaves the production perimeter.
Validation
Astanor Ventures
Series A lead, €18.4M, Nov 2023
Rabobank Food & Agri Fund
Series A participant, 2023
Bureau Veritas
Batch-level blockchain-provenance auditor since Q1 2024
Wageningen University
Co-authored research on heavy-metal bioaccumulation, 2023
Port of Rotterdam
Active MOU, ~22,000 t/yr municipal organic-waste offtake
Forward Fooding FoodTech 500
Position #214 globally, #31 Insect Tech, 2024 ranking
European AgriFoodTech Innovation Summit
Startup of the Year, Copenhagen, 2023
