Agritech startup Loopworm has raised $3.4 million in seed funding led by Omnivore and WaterBridge Ventures.
The round has also seen participation from Titan Capital and angel investors including Nadir Godrej of Godrej Agrovet, Sanjiv Rangrass, a former ITC executive, and Log9 Materials’ Akshay Singhal.
Loopworm plans to use the seed funding for talent acquisition, research, and development (R&D) including building laboratories, and to launch its first factory in North Bengaluru for scaling up production.
Founded in 2019 by IIT Roorkee graduates Ankit Alok Bagaria and Abhi Gawri, Loopworm is an insect biotechnology startup that aims to optimize insect farming for households. small scale while producing nutrients and ingredients for business-to-business (B2B) customers.
The startup said it aims to transform multiple sectors including aquaculture, pet food, and nutraceuticals using multi-species insect biotechnology.
The startup is building decentralized insect rearing facilities in partnership with smallholder farmers. It aims to produce 3,00,000 metric tons (MT) of sustainable insect-based protein per annum, creating value from 7.5 million MT of food waste and agricultural byproducts, over the next five years,
Ankit Alok Bagaria and Abhi Gawri, Co-founders of LoopWorm, said in a joint statement, “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 Bengaluru, hire talent, and accelerate R&D.”
Mark Kahn, Managing Partner of 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.”
In December 2021, the venture capital firm launched the OmniX Bio initiative to provide additional support to agribusiness life science startups. In a statement, Loopworm said the investment is Omnivore’s second under the initiative.
Most recently, in April, Omnivore also launched a third fund with a target capital of $130 million to invest in early-stage startups developing technology for agriculture, food and business. rural economy.