Coalo Valley Farms, California's first edible cricket farm, missed its goal this month to raise money on Kickstarter. (Tweet this)
Elliott Mermel, who runs the farm out of a warehouse in the Los Angeles suburb of Van Nuys, told CNBC last month before launching the crowdfunding campaign that the money would "allow us to increase our cash reserves for any bumps in the road. We need only $30,000 to $40,000—and that should carry us."
According to the Kickstarter website, Coalo Valley Farms had a goal to raise $32,000 but crowdfunders pledged only $16,443. Mermel didn't respond to CNBC's requests for comment on the Kickstarter setback.
Mermel raised about $100,000 from family members to start the cricket farm and sell cricket protein powder. Sometimes called "cricket flour," the powder is used in everything from cricket energy bars and baked goods to smoothies.
"We saw an awesome opportunity where we could take such an old industry and such an old form of nutrition—insects—and kind of put a new-world, a new-generation twist on it," Mermel said last month.
Coalo Valley Farms isn't the first edible cricket company to try its luck at crowdfunding. But two previous attempts by cricket protein bar companies were more successful.
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In 2012, Chapul raised just over $16,000 from a Kickstarter campaign, exceeding its $10,000 goal. And Exo brand cricket bar's 2013 Kickstarter campaign generated nearly $55,000, above the company's $20,000 goal.