[Founders] · Built in public · Marrakech, Morocco
A Moroccan father-and-son team. PhD-grade science, founder-led operations.
Thirty years of locust entomology research from the lab bench in Strasbourg and Marrakech — translated into shippable, halal-certified protein SKUs by the next generation, operating in the open.
Prof. Ahmed Hamdaoui · Marrakech, 2024
Co-founder · R&D & Food-Safety Lead
Prof. Ahmed Hamdaoui, PhD
- PhD, BiochemistryUniversité Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg (1986)
- Professor, 1986–2020Faculté des Sciences Semlalia, U. Cadi Ayyad, Marrakech
- Visiting ProfessorULP Strasbourg · U. of Florida (FMEL/IFAS)
- EU-funded locust researchCollab. Prof. A. De Loof, KU Leuven (Belgium)
Prof. Hamdaoui spent the better part of three decades studying the biochemistry of Schistocerca gregaria — the desert locust — at Cadi Ayyad and through an EU-funded research line with Louvain. His group isolated and characterized novel serine protease inhibitors from the locust ovary, published in FEBS Letters, Biochemical Journal, and BBRC.
In 2020 he retired from teaching and turned that lab knowledge into a production process: industrial-scale locust farming with a halal-compliant, low-cost protocol designed for Morocco's climate and grid. That process is what Acridia operates today.
Inside the company he owns R&D and food safety: lab protocols, batch QC, the third-party microbial / heavy-metal / nutritional panel that ships with every pallet. The argument he has been making in the Moroccan press since 2021 — that locusts are the only halal-native insect protein and Africa should not import that capability — is now the company's commercial thesis.
Selected peer-reviewed publications
Purification of a novel, heat-stable serine protease inhibitor from ovaries of the desert locust, Schistocerca gregaria.
Hamdaoui A. et al. (1997) — Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 238(2):357–360
Purification and characterization of five novel peptide serine protease inhibitors from the desert locust.
Hamdaoui A. et al. (1998) — FEBS Letters 422(1):74–78
A novel locust (Schistocerca gregaria) serine protease inhibitor with a high affinity for neutrophil elastase.
Brillard-Bourdet, Hamdaoui A. et al. (2006) — Biochemical Journal 400:467–475
Co-founder & CEO · Commercial, Operations, GCC/SEA buyer relationships
Nabil Hamdaoui
Nabil runs Acridia day to day: production planning, customer onboarding, halal certification workflows, and the export logistics from FOB Casablanca to Jebel Ali, Port Klang, and Tanjung Pelepas.
He is the founder buyers actually talk to. No layered sales team, no pitch deck distance — the person who quotes your sample is the person who signs your PO and follows the container.
He also produces an ongoing public conversation with his father on locust protein, halal food science, education, and the state of research in Morocco. That conversation is below — and it is the most honest founder due-diligence document we can give a prospective buyer.
Nabil Hamdaoui · Co-founder & CEO
The Conversation
A son, a professor, and a recording light.
Nabil records ongoing conversations with his father on locust protein, halal food science, the Moroccan research ecosystem, and education. Watch a few minutes — you will know exactly who you are buying from.
Follow the build
One dispatch when something real happens.
New podcast episodes, production milestones, shipping updates — sent directly by Nabil. See the full journal →
Press
Covered in the Moroccan business and policy press since 2021.
L'Opinion
Pourquoi les criquets pourraient nourrir l'Afrique
Read the piece →L'Économiste
La start-up qui ambitionne de nourrir l'Afrique
Read the piece →L'Opinion
Bientôt des insectes dans nos assiettes ?
Read the piece →
Talk to the team that built this.
Sample requests, spec sheets, and quotations are handled directly by Nabil, with food-safety questions routed to Prof. Hamdaoui.
Request a sample →