Insect Biotech start-up, Loopworm has raised $3.4 million in a seed funding round led by Omnivore and WaterBridge Ventures. The round saw participation from Titan Capital, and angel investors including Nadir Godrej (Godrej Agrovet), Sanjiv Rangrass (ex-ITC), and Akshay Singhal (Log9 Materials).
Loopworm plans to use the seed funding for talent acquisition, research and development, and to launch their first factory for scaling up production.
The biotech start-up is building decentralised insect rearing facilities in partnership with smallholder farmers. Over the next five years, the start-up aims to produce 300,000 metric ton(MT) of sustainable insect-based protein per annum, creating value from 7.5 million MT of food waste and agricultural by-products.
Ankit Alok Bagaria and Abhi Gawri, Co-founders of Loopworm, said, “We are thrilled to have Omnivore, Waterbridge, Titan Capital, and several experienced angels, including Nadir Godrej, as investors in Loopworm. We plan to use the new funding to set up our first Loop Factory in North Bangalore, hire talent, and accelerate R&D.”
Insect farming
Loopworm said it is optimizing insect farming for smallholders while producing value-added nutrients and ingredients for B2B customers. Loopworm is Omnivore’s second investment under its OmniX Bio initiative, which backs early-stage agrifood life science start-ups.
Mark Kahn, Managing Partner, Omnivore, said, “Omnivore is delighted to back Loopworm under our OmniX Bio initiative, which seeks to blaze a path forward for agrifood life sciences in India. Loopworm sees massive potential in transforming cultivated insects into value-added nutrients and ingredients, and Omnivore believes the company will quickly become one of India’s leading biotech start-ups.”