9. Goterra
Goterra has its origins in founder Olympia Yarger’s search for a sustainable and cost-effective livestock-feed option. See their Smart50 rank
Revenue: $944,205
Growth: 115%
Founders: Olympia Yarger
Head office: Hume, ACT
Year founded: 2016
Employees: 48
Industry: Agtech
Website: goterra.au
How Goterra started
A name synonymous with sustainability in agriculture, Goterra has its origins in founder Olympia Yarger searching for a sustainable and cost-effective livestock-feed option and discovering the viability of insect protein.
This led to the development of her autonomous insect robot, a mobile insect feedlot, designed to take food waste and feed it to a specific breed of maggot, before turning those maggots into protein-rich feed for livestock.
“Goterra is valorising food waste that would otherwise go to landfill by converting it into protein,” says Yarger. “This protein creates a circular economy by feeding it to livestock, realising high value from otherwise wasted food.”
Growth
A previous Smart50 Sustainability Award winner, Canberra-based Goterra has previously raised $18 million in external capital, and is working with the likes of the City of Sydney, Woolworths and Brisbane hospitality precinct Howard Smith Wharves to tackle food waste in a way that also produces protein-rich animal feed and fertilisers.
Goterra’s intention moving forward is to maintain its current growth trajectory while meeting increasing demand. “Our focus now is operational expansion and penetrating the Australian market with a land and expand strategy, while making inroads with an international beachhead,” says Yarger.
What’s vital for Goterra, she adds, is that growth does not disrupt its integration with customers, which is not only a source of collaboration but also supports its environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals.
Where to next
“When I first started Goterra,” says Yarger, “I committed to keeping at least one part of our focus on what comes next.” Further employment of its maggot robots around Australia and internationally is a goal, as is “discovering new ways insects can help us live more sustainably”.
Expanding knowledge about food waste and its relationship to climate change, however, remains front-of-mind. While much investment interest is directed towards loss prevention and waste prevention, funding for end-of-life solutions like waste processing, upcycling, and recycling remains low.
“For Goterra to remain relevant, we need to understand how to manage these waste types, but more importantly, what happens to all the bad things when we’re done,” says Yarger. “If we’ve done our job right as citizens of the world, we’ll waste less, we’ll valorise more, we’ll upcycle and recycle.”
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