A local entrepreneur who developed a technology that could feed multitudes took a bow at the Dayton Engineers Club on Thursday as investors thanked him for a job well done.
In February, Intrexon Corp. acquired Yellow Springs firm EnviroFlight LLC to form a joint venture with Darling Ingredients Inc., the world’s largest publicly traded developer and producer of sustainable natural ingredients from bio-nutrients.
Glen Courtright, EnviroFlight president and chief executive, said he expects the company’s local workforce of about 17 to grow even as the venture looks for a production site harnessing Courtright’s process.
That site could be in the Dayton area — or elsewhere.
“We’re definitely looking at this area right now,” Courtright said. “We’re looking at feed-stock sources and where the finished goods will be sold.”
EnviroFlight’s idea was to feed people with fish, and to cultivate fish with insects. The process also helps dispose of waste.
Roger Edwards, vice president of Accelerant Venture Capital Fund, said the Dayton Development Coalition-aligned Dayton Region Signature Fund was one of EnviroFlight’s early seed-stage investors.
One reason for Thursday’s event was to mark EnviroFlight’s official exit from the fund.
“Literally, they are going to use this (process) worldwide,” Edwards said.
The company is a good example of the kind of business local investors search out, said Jeff Hoagland, coalition president and CEO.
“We continue to find them in every sector,” he said.
“EnviroFlight has developed proprietary technologies which enable the rearing of non-pathogenic black soldier fly larvae in an industrially scalable manner,” Intrexon said in February when it acquired EnviroFlight.
“This innovative and responsible approach has considerable potential within the $60 billion global animal feed industry as it will provide an environmentally friendly, toxin-free, sustainable source of high-value nutrients.”
EnviroFlight may have 30 or more employees in Yellow Springs in a few years, Courtright said.
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