BENGALURU, 1 July 2025: Insect farming start-up Loopworm has secured $3.25 million in a pre-Series A round to expand its proprietary silkworm-based recombinant protein manufacturing platform, aiming to challenge the high costs and complexity of traditional biomanufacturing.
The funding round was led by WaterBridge Ventures, an existing investor, alongside Japan’s Enrission India Capital, reflecting growing cross-border investor confidence in India’s biotech innovations.
Founded by IIT-Roorkee graduates Ankit Alok Bagaria and Abhi Gawri, Bengaluru-based Loopworm has developed a novel method of using silkworms as living biofactories to produce complex proteins, circumventing the need for costly, energy-intensive bioreactors. Recombinant proteins — critical for diagnostics, vaccines, and industrial uses — have traditionally relied on genetically engineered microorganisms cultivated in expensive reactors. Loopworm’s system, by contrast, harnesses the biology of silkworms to produce these proteins more sustainably and at lower cost.
“Recombinant protein manufacturing has long been constrained by expensive infrastructure and slow scalability,” Bagaria, Loopworm’s CEO, said in a statement. “Our reactor-free approach using silkworms changes the economics entirely.”
The company, which operates a 6,000-tonne-per-year insect processing facility in Bangalore, already exports insect-derived proteins and oils for aquaculture and pet food to Europe, South America, and ASEAN markets. With the fresh capital, Loopworm plans to commercialize its recombinant protein production platform, initially targeting diagnostics, animal vaccines, and other lower-regulatory-barrier markets.
As India seeks to build a competitive industrial biotech ecosystem, Loopworm’s progress has drawn attention. Ashish Jain, Partner at WaterBridge Ventures, described the platform as a “potential leapfrog moment for biotech in India,” while Harsh Deodhar of Enrission India Capital highlighted its alignment with Japan’s sustainability and biotech ambitions.
Loopworm has filed multiple patents covering its silkworm recombinant technology and has received R&D-scale regulatory approvals. Its production facility meets international certifications including ISO 22000, GMP+, HACCP, and EU Traces.
“India is ready to lead the next wave of industrial biotech, and Loopworm is building the kind of platform that could make that possible,” added Mark Kahn, Managing Partner at Omnivore, an early backer of the company.
