This profile is part of the Sacramento Business Journal's Inno Under 25 feature.
Sacramento Inno Under 25 recognizes entrepreneurs, innovators, founders and scientists in the Sacramento regional business ecosystem.
These talented young people are trailblazers who have seen opportunities, created new products or started their own companies at an age when many people are still trying to figure out what they want to be when they grow up. The candidates are all under 25 by the end of this year, and they live or work in local counties.
Amir Salehzadeh, 21, and Rosh Ho, 23
Co-founders of AgGen
In his freshman year, Amir Salehzadeh went through the Plasma Accelerator in the Student Startup Center at University of California Davis. In the 12-week early-stage accelerator, he and AgGen co-founder Rosh Ho were looking at technologies for efficiently breeding crickets as a potential protein source for livestock, pets, aquaculture and people.
Ho earned his degree in computer science at the University of California Davis, where he was an entrepreneur in residence at the Student Startup Center. He’s now studying at Columbia University in New York, where he's working on his master's in computer science and working in a robotics lab.
Back in Davis two years ago, the two quickly moved on from crickets to black soldier flies, whose larvae have a body mass that is 50% protein.
"These are incredible insects. They are extraordinary at bioconversion," Salehzadeh said. "They can break down anything you put in front of them."
In their larval stage, they consume food waste in days. The goal of AgGen is to create revenue using waste products to create a beneficial circular economy. Salehzadeh has been studying the larvae up close and personal. He’s got about 20,000 maggots at his house in Davis.
“I had to do a lot of convincing with my girlfriend,” he said. “This is what it takes. You learn a lot by living with them.”
The company has revenue now from selling them as pet food. The larvae are perfect food for pets like lizards and geckos, and unlike crickets, they can't bite the pet.
Ho’s contribution to AgGen is through the patented modular insect farming habitat he developed using a reusable flexible media.
"Insect protein is very interesting,” Ho said. It solves problems of waste and feed while being part of a virtuous circular economy. The company is now selling larvae to pet owners, but the vision is much larger, Ho said. “We want to work up to farms and being much larger scale."
Using better materials and forms, AgGen is trying to remove as much redundancy in growing the larvae to optimize the process.
Traditional composting of agricultural waste creates greenhouse gases, takes a long time and comes with high transportation costs. AgGen’s modular insect farming system can be used on-site to recycle agricultural waste to produce a valuable high-protein feed.
Salehzadeh is a junior studying biotechnology and genetic engineering at the UC Davis. The business of AgGen is out of Salehzadeh's field of study, and he says that has advantages.
“Not being a specialist gives you an advantage. You end up asking a lot of questions. It’s a lot of stupidity, I’m not going to lie.”
Ho is still working with AgGen, and he plans to graduate as soon as possible to get back to Davis.
AgGen won $20,000 at a regional pitch Circular Economy Innovation Competition put on by the Carlsen Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at California State University Sacramento. AgGen was also accepted into a national Venture Well program for their innovation in a modular insect farming system that recycles and harvests agricultural food waste.
