Indian biotech startup Loopworm wraps $3.4 million in seed funding

Oluwajuwonlo Afolabi -

Loopworm, an India-based biotech startup working to improve food security in the country has wrapped $3.4 million in its seed funding round co-led by Omnivore and WaterBridge Ventures, with participation from other investors.

  • The fund will be channelled to acquiring more talents, aimed at research and development (R&D), building world-class laboratories, and launching its first factory for scaling up production, the biotech startup claims.
  • Founded in 2019, Loopworm is optimizing multi-species insect farming for smallholders while producing value-laid nutrients and ingredients for business-to-business (B2B) customers. Ankit Alok Bagaria and Abhi Gawri, the founders, are using Loopworm to solve India's food waste crisis, increase the income of small-scale farmers, and show the usefulness of biotechnology in addressing environmental challenges in the country.
  • In partnership with small-scale farmers in India, Loopworm is building decentralized insect rearing facilities targeted at generating up to 300,000 metric tons of sustainable insect-based protein per annum and 7.5 million metric tons of food waste and agricultural byproducts in the next five years.
  • Titan Capital and angel investors including Nadir Godrej (Godrej Agrovet), Sanjiv Rangrass (ex-ITC), and Dr. Akshay Singhal (Log9 Materials) invested in the round.