NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

By Mansi Verma

Agritech startup, Loopworm, on August 24, announced that it has raised $3.4 million in seed funding led by Omnivore and WaterBridge Ventures. The round also witnessed participation from Titan Capital and angel investors including Nadir Godrej of Godrej Agrovet, Sanjiv Rangrass former head of ITC, and Akshay Singhal of Log9 Materials.

Loopworm, in a statement, said it 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 biotech startup that aims to optimise insect farming for smallholders 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.