Circular economy solutions company, Goterra, has opened expressions of interest for its upcoming equity raise through OnMarket. Since it was founded in 2015, the company has used robotic insect farms to turn food waste into fertiliser and animal feed – reducing emissions by up to 97 per cent, compared to landfill.
Food waste is a critical problem, with up to 90 per cent ending up in landfills. Australia generates 7.6 million tonnes of food waste annually. In New South Wales alone, over 550,000 tonnes of commercial food waste, plus 1.5 million tonnes of residential organics, must find compliant solutions by 2030.
Major metropolitan landfills will reach capacity by 2025, prompting governments to mandate waste diversion from 2026 onward. As capacity shrinks, disposal costs are rising sharply. Meanwhile, centralised alternatives like new landfills and anaerobic digestion facilities are too slow and expensive to meet the urgent demand, leaving a significant gap in viable infrastructure solutions.
Goterra has previously partnered with Woolworths since 2020, and with the City of Sydney since 2024 to reduce food waste, through use of its robotic insect farms. The company also has partnerships to handle waste for Lendlease and Melbourne Airport.
Food scraps are fed to Black Soldier Fly larvae housed inside shipping container-sized units, which can eat twice their own body weight every day. Their manure will be processed into fertiliser, and the maggots are processed into protein, rich in vitamins and minerals, that can be fed to fish and poultry or turned into pet food.
The solution took six years and over $20 million in funding to develop.
The company has also participated in research collaborations with End Food Waste Australia, CSIRO, ANU, University of Canberra, and University of Queensland.
Goterra states its decentralised hub-and-spoke model deploys in months, rather than years. Its on-site processing reduces transport costs and emissions, and the modular units scale with demand.
The company said crowdsourced and Series B funding will support rapid expansion of its network across New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, plugging a gap competitors can't fill.
Goterra CEO, Olympia Yarger, said in the company’s investor video that it produced a proven commercial technology with deep IP and years of iteration behind it.
“No one else can match our speed, cost or scalability. Right now, our problem is we can't keep up with demand,” said Yarger.
“We're raising capital to scale production, deploy more units, and meet this once in a generational shift in waste infrastructure. Become a shareholder today, and help us solve one of the world's dumbest problems with the smartest solution.”
Head to onmarket.com.au to learn more and register for the Investor Webinar and Q&A, taking place on Friday 14 November at 12:30pm AEDT.
