Spent 45 million to get Swedes to eat worms – goes bankrupt

Published 26 July 2024 at 10.14

Economy. The so-called impact company Tebrito had high-flying dreams of making money serving mealworms to Swedes. Now the company has been forced into bankruptcy.

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“Nils Österström has invested his life and his income in the food of the future – insects. Within a few years his company aims on growing up to 500 tons of larvae per year,” wrote Dagens Nyheter in a report on Tebrito last spring.

In the article, founder Österström told us that he was sure that the concept of mealworm-eating Swedes would become a success.

– One day we will get there. Right now there is a lot going on behind the scenes. It takes time to create a sufficiently large production, to develop the product itself and the marketing and to get all the approvals, he told the newspaper.

The company, which collected SEK 45 million from investors such as Almi Invest, has according to Nils Österström has not been able to solve his urgent financial problems.

“Despite constructive dialogues with potentially very interesting partners with the aim of scaling up the company, it has unfortunately not been possible to solve the most urgent financial situation”, writes the founder Österström in a comment to Impact Loop.

During 2023, Tebrito reported a turnover of SEK 531,000, at the same time reporting a loss of SEK 13.6 million.

Tebrito has, among other things, been praised as ” New thinker of the year” by Dalarna Business Forum.