In a pre-Series A funding round, Loopworm, a biomanufacturing business creating proteins derived from insects, has raised $3.25 million. An existing investor, WaterBridge Ventures, and a Japanese venture capital firm, ENRISSION INDIA CAPITAL, co-led the round.
A seed funding round led by Omnivore and others had previously raised $3.4 million for the Bengaluru-based company.
According to a press release from Loopworm, the money will go toward commercializing its platform for producing recombinant proteins, with an emphasis on diagnostics, animal vaccines, and other uses with fewer regulatory obstacles.
Ankit Alok Bagaria and Abhi Gawri co-founded Loopworm in 2019 with the goal of producing sustainable protein from farmed insects. The company is currently creating a novel reactor-free recombinant protein production platform using silkworms, and it has already commercialized insect-derived proteins and fats for aquaculture and pet nutrition.
According to Loopworm, it has invented a novel method for making recombinant proteins, which are normally made by introducing genes into host organisms like bacteria or yeast in order to produce useful industrial or medicinal proteins. Its patented method completely avoids this by producing complex proteins using silkworms as living factories, allowing for quicker, more economical, and sustainable production.
In Bengaluru, the company currently runs a cutting-edge insect processing facility that can process 6,000 tons annually. For use in aquaculture and pet food, it exports protein and oil from silkworms and other farmed insects to ASEAN nations, South America, and Europe.
