Insect-based fresh dog food company Tuggs has secured £1.1m in funding from several institutional investors and angels.
Tuggs mixes insects with other meats, fish, and vegetables to create a product that offers consumers healthy dog food that is gentle on the planet. Research now shows that a 10kg dog eating wet food has roughly the same carbon footprint as a human and highlights that pet food accounts for up to 30 per cent of the carbon emissions related to food production. Farmed insects can help reduce this environmental burden as they use up to 95 per cent less land, water and carbon emissions to produce the same volume of protein as beef.
Launched in late 2022, the startup has sold over 350,000 meals to dogs across the UK and recently moved into new offices in London. £1.1m pre-seed secured earlier this year has contributed to key business developments over the last five months including team hiring, product development and marketing investment. The team’s headcount has increased by 100 percent in the last year as it expands into key divisions such as customer services and builds out existing teams in product engineering and business development.
A key focus for the fresh pet food brand has been moving production wholly to the UK, as they look further to align their sustainable and organic values across the business.
Tuggs currently operates solely on a D2C subscription model, and Bremner attributes its success to its sustainable approach.
