Sometimes, you back the founder—no matter what they’re building.
When Bart Roszkowski told us he was leaving the software world to build fully autonomous insect factories, we didn’t flinch. We’d backed him before (as co-founder of Vue Storefront), and we knew what he was capable of. If Bart was taking on the future of protein, we wanted in.
Proteine Resources is not your typical SMOK investment. It’s capital-intensive, hardware-heavy, and involves breeding bugs. But what the team has built—and what they’re aiming for—is nothing short of a blueprint for the next generation of food and agricultural infrastructure.
A massive market craving a solution
Europe alone produces over 100 million tonnes of biowaste annually. Most of it still ends up in landfills or incinerators, despite new EU regulations mandating sustainable disposal. At the same time, demand for alternative proteins—for animal feed, pet food, and even cosmetics—is exploding.
Proteine Resources is meeting both challenges head-on. Their proprietary insect breeding technology outputs protein of unmatched quality, with superior margins and a drastically smaller environmental footprint than traditional sources like soy or fishmeal.
“The demand already exceeds current supply 30 times over—and that gap is only growing.”
They’re starting with poultry and premium pet food producers, but the tech can be applied to any physical product category that requires sustainable, high-quality protein inputs—from aquaculture to pharma.
Deep tech meets deep domain expertise
The founding team is one of the strongest we’ve ever backed. Bart brings 17 years of startup and scaling experience. He’s joined by Konrad Włodarczyk and Dominik Helbin, two of the top insect breeders in Europe, with decades of hands-on experience running Poland’s largest orthoptera farms. CTO Dawid Misiniec ties it all together, building out an engineering stack that combines AI, automation, and sustainability in a way that makes industrial insect farming actually scalable.
The result? A patented, end-to-end production stack that includes:
- Automated, AI-controlled insect breeding
- Zero-emission factory design
- A unique heat-recycling system that powers neighboring mushroom farms
- Premium-grade insect-based products sold across three high-margin verticals
“Most people don’t realize how broken our current protein supply chains are—until they see how little land, water, and energy we need to produce something better. This is not a science project. It’s a new industrial standard.”
— Bart Roszkowski, co-CEO, Proteine Resources
Timing is on their side
From biowaste regulations and soy restrictions to booming demand in pet food and sustainable agriculture, the market tailwinds for insect protein have never been stronger. And Proteine Resources is one of the few players approaching the problem with the technical depth and operational maturity needed to build a defensible business.
We invested early—before the full system was operational—because we’ve seen how this team executes. And because this is not just another biotech startup. It’s infrastructure for the future of food and materials.
Are you building something ambitious in CEE?
If this kind of thinking resonates with you—or if you know a founder we should meet—check out our investment FAQ and send your deck to borys@smok.vc.
Let’s build something weird (and wildly scalable) together.