How Loopworm Is Turning Insects Into Protein For Feed And Pharma

A blood test looks simple – needle in, blood out. The vial is ready. Same with a vaccine. 

But, between the simple in and out, plays a complex chemistry of protein biologics. It is crucial in various other medical procedures, like OTC pregnancy test kits and cancer drugs. These are a class of molecules that most of us come across without ever knowing much about them.

They detect diseases, trigger immune responses and treat conditions by interacting with the body’s biological systems. Sourcing them is not easy. They are expensive, technically difficult to manufacture, and the world depends on a small group of global producers. 

Complex biologics can cost over $500,000 a year, making them out of reach in many emerging markets where demand for diagnostics, research and therapeutics is rising rapidly. 

A Bengaluru startup, however, got the whiff of a solution in insects. Loopworm, founded by Ankit Alok Bagaria and Abhi Gawri in 2019, is building a bio-manufacturing startup that uses insects such as silkworms and black soldier flies to manufacture these protein biologics. Instead of relying on expensive industrial infrastructure, insects can be used to produce the same biological molecules more efficiently, lowering costs and improving access.

According to the cofounder, Loopworm can bring down the cost of manufacturing these proteins to anything between half and one-fifth, depending on the molecule and its production complexity.

The company earns its revenue from manufacturing protein for animal feed. It processes insects into high-protein concentrates and Omega-3-rich fats, which are sold as ingredients for aquaculture, poultry, and pet food. Loopworm supplies feed manufacturers in India and exports to pet food and aquaculture companies across Japan, Europe and South America. 

For its founders, this is a starting point. “Loopworm is not an animal nutrition company that happens to use insects. It’s a manufacturing company that uses insects to make things the world needs,” Bagaria said in an interaction with Inc42.

Loopworm does not see other insect protein startups as its competition. Instead, it is going after a much older, more established market, the one currently dominated by traditional feed manufacturers for fish meal and krill meal, like Pelagia AS and Omega Protein Corp. 

In recombinant proteins, Loopworm aims to be an alternative to large global biomanufacturers that dominate production through traditional bioreactor-based systems.

The startup raised ₹25.8 Cr in September 2022 from Omnivore Ventures, followed by ₹27.8 Cr in June 2025 from Enrition Capital and Waterbridge Ventures. It also received early backing through grants from BIRAC’s Biotechnology Ignition Grant, Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojna (RKVY), Elevate Karnataka, Tata Trusts, the Gates Foundation and H&M Foundation.

In FY25, Loopworm reported a revenue of ₹4.5 Cr and is projecting ₹15-18 Cr for FY26, led largely by export demand in animal nutrition, a vertical that is operationally profitable and anchors the company’s near-term growth.

Turning A Byproduct Into A Business

Bagaria had had a failed attempt before Loopworm. His first venture, AgroSnap, spent three years developing a crop leaf-imaging system to guide fertiliser use. It never quite worked. What it did leave him with, however, was a better sense of where value in agriculture actually sits. So, when Bagaria and Gawri came together in 2018, they were clear on one thing: they wanted to build in agriculture, but not in the usual way.

Shifting focus to sustainability, rising demand for protein and India’s underutilised strengths as a low-cost manufacturing base with abundant biological resources pushed them to explore the industry.

“We started with a simple question: which bio-resources are abundant but still underutilised? That led us to four clear categories: microorganisms, seaweed and algae, insects, and food industry byproducts, and we began mapping where capital and science were beginning to converge,” Bagaria said. 

A UN report on insects as the future of food and feed inspired them to dig deeper. Bagaria shared that during his research, he learned that insects thrive in tropical climates, and that Indian conditions had everything they needed to build something from there. 

India has a strong sericulture base. It produced 41,121 Tonnes of raw silk in 2024-25, up 6% from 38,913 Tonnes a year back. But that was also a limitation. The entire ecosystem, built around silk and the byproduct of silkworm pupae, was largely discarded, despite being rich in protein and fat. 

Bagaria and Gawri saw an opportunity in that gap: to take what was treated as waste and turn it into a usable, high-value protein in demand. Connecting the two, tech and demand, Loopworm was incorporated in September 2019, but the initial phase was tough as building the manufacturing facilities required capital. “We had to rely on industry grants before they could raise an institutional round,” the cofounder shared. 

That was only one of the many challenges, though. “To convince feed manufacturers to take a chance on something as unfamiliar as silkworm protein, we had to think like a supplier and work backwards from what buyers actually cared about. We ensured that we had steady volumes, consistent protein levels and clean safety certifications to gain the confidence of its early consumers,” said Bagaria. 

Loopworm also had to build its own systems to process silkworm biomass at scale, refining them in-house through repeated breakdowns and fixes. And after three-and-a-half years of trial and error and incremental improvements, the company was ready to take it to market prematurely. As a result, Loopworm waited for months to convert its early customers, run trials for months, and prove that the product could improve growth rates, reduce mortality, and still make economic sense. 

Exports, on the other hand, added a different layer of friction. In markets such as Japan and Europe, regulators and buyers alike had never encountered silkworm-based protein at scale. 

“We found ourselves explaining the category before it could sell into it. Most of the global insect protein industry had standardised around black soldier fly larvae. By choosing silkworms, we not only became different but also took on the burden of building that market from scratch,” said Bagaria. 

Today, Loopworm supplies shrimp feed manufacturers across Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal, works with aquaculture producers in Thailand, Vietnam and Scandinavia and sells into pet food companies across Europe. 

Process of Producing Protein From Silkworms

At a basic level, Loopworm is taking silkworms and turning them into a reliable production system. Silkworms are naturally efficient. They eat plant material and convert it into protein and fat at a high rate. Instead of seeing them only as part of the silk industry, Loopworm treats them like small biological units that can generate nutrient-rich output at scale.

“If you feed silkworms the right inputs, they produce biomass that is rich in protein and lipids,” said Bagaria.

But that biomass, on its own, is not useful. It is inconsistent, perishable and difficult to transport or store. No feed manufacturer can plug raw insect material into their systems, and this is where Loopworm’s technology plays a role. 

The company has built processing systems that convert raw biomass into stable, standardised products, primarily protein powders and oils. The process involves breaking down the biomass, separating its components and refining them into formats that can be stored, transported and used reliably.

Bagaria compares it to refining crude oil. The raw input is messy and unusable in its original form, but once processed, it becomes a consistent industrial product.

Maintaining consistency is the hardest part of the entire operation. Feed manufacturers need every batch to behave the same way in terms of protein levels, safety and performance. With biological inputs like insects, it is quite difficult to achieve. “A large part of our effort goes into ensuring that what we produce is consistent enough for manufacturers to depend on,” Bagaria said.

The company has also developed a biostimulant for crops and is conducting trials in collaboration with ICAR – IIPR for pulses to assess the product’s efficiency on Mungbean, Urdbean, and Chickpeas.

Moving From Animal Feed To Biologics

So far, Loopworm has been able to prove that insects can serve as an industrial input, but the next phase of its growth lies in establishing that they can scale beyond that. The company is using silkworms to produce specialised proteins for diagnostic and research use. 

According to Loopworm’s official website, it has successfully produced some preliminary proteins, such as Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP), in silkworms, but to bring it to market, the company requires validation across labs, regulatory frameworks, and global buyers. 

For FY26, Loopworm aims to nearly quadruple its topline on the back of growing demand for its animal nutrition products and the launch of its recombinant proteins. It again has to build its market as the category itself is being understood. According to Bagaria, the adoption of biologics is expected to be gradual. 

“It’s a completely different level of work. The science takes longer, the cycles are longer, and the expectations are much higher,” said Bagaria. However, it is expanding its reach across geographies, particularly in markets where performance-linked inputs command a premium. 

The broader question, however, is not just about Loopworm, but about whether insects can move from being an experimental input to a mainstream manufacturing layer. For now, the company is building capabilities, testing markets and extending its technology into adjacent areas.

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