Indian insect biotech startup Loopworm has raised $3.4 million in seed funding co-led by Indian agrifood VC Omnivore and WaterBridge Ventures. Loopworm is the first Indian technology startup to farm insects for animal feed.
Titan Capital and leading angel investors, including Godrej Agrovet chairman, Nadir Godrej, former R&D and sustainability group head at Indian conglomerate ITC, Sanjiv Rangrass, and Akshay Singhal, founder, and CEO of Log9 Materials, also participated in the round.
From waste to protein and micronutrient-rich animal feed
Loopworm grows insects on food waste and processes them into value-added products for the animal feed industry. The company sources this food waste — which it likes to call “organic byproduct”– from food processors, retail food chains, and fruit markets. Through biochemistry and fermentation, it’s processed to make it suitable for insects to breed. Currently, the black soldier fly. The insects are then processed into final feed for shrimp and poultry.
Loopworm’s concept was born when the co-founders Ankit Alok Bagaria and Abhi Gawri met at Enactus, a non-profit organization that promotes social entrepreneurship amongst university students. They both had ambitions to create a social entrepreneurship venture and solve India’s food waste problem, which according to Bagaria, was of utmost importance given the country’s soaring population.
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