Insect-based dogfood startup Tuggs has used a £1.1m investment round to boost growth and make its supply chain more sustainable.
The brand made its market debut at the end of 2022 with what it claimed was the UK’s first fresh dogfood made from insects, using organic ingredients such as black soldier fly larvae in its pre-portioned pouches.
Tuggs secured the pre-seed funding from institutional investors and angels and has used the money to move production from Italy to the UK and invest in marketing and NPD.
Revenues have trebled in the past nine months. Since launching, the startup, which currently operates solely on a DTC subscription model, has sold more than 350,000 meals. It has also doubled its employee headcount to six in the past year to expand the customer service offering and the product engineering and business development teams.
Harry Bremner, who founded the brand in 2021, said: “We have now proven that there is a very strong product-market fit for our offering, and we’re beginning the next stage of scaling.
“We recently achieved one of the biggest milestones in our journey, which was moving our entire production and supply chain to the UK. This has given us much greater control over our product development, as well as providing significantly more scope for growth. We’re excited as we look ahead to 2025 where we’ll have the infrastructure in place to begin scaling much quicker whilst adding to our product offering.”
Tuggs’ meals are “gently cooked” using “fresh, human-grade ingredients”, with no additives or preservatives, before being frozen and delivered to the consumer’s door.
“Our ethos is about reducing reliance on livestock without compromising on the nutritional composition of the food,” Bremner added.
“The main reason that consumers are choosing Tuggs is due to the quality of our products. However, we believe the onus is on us as a brand to build the product as sustainably as we can, which is why we’re pioneering the use of alternative proteins such as insects.”
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