Beta Bugs has secured a £2.1 million investment as it looks to become a global leader in insect genetics.

Tricapital Angels has led the cash injection alongside Scottish Enterprise. It follows a £1.7m investment into the business in 2023.

Beta Bugs was launched in Edinburgh in 2017 by CEO and founder Dr Thomas Farrugia and is based at the Easter Bush Campus – a centre of excellence for animal genetics and home to the Roslin Institute.

The investment will enable Beta Bugs to accelerate its development into an international player in Black Soldier Fly genetics, as well as scale up production of eggs and juvenile larvae to supply to insect farming operations.

Over the past decade, black soldier fly farming has developed extensively as an industry.

The larvae possess an ability to simultaneously divert food, agricultural and industrial waste from disposal and instead up-cycle it into a green, circular and regionally produced nutrient-rich ingredient for the pet, aqua and livestock sectors.

As a result, black soldier fly farms are already being deployed by waste processors, retailers and food manufacturers to reduce their waste footprint, whilst producing an alternative feed to replace environmentally damaging soymeal and fishmeal production.

Beta Bugs has already made great strides in selectively breeding superior black soldier flies, which are larger and faster growing, thereby improving the efficiency of converting waste into useful protein and oil.

With the additional investment, the genetics team will be expanded and the breeding programme will move to the next level.

The company is now building the capability to deliver its superior flies to black soldier fly producers and is already developing commercial relationships with the first large scale producers in the UK.

Dr Farrugia said: “This funding allows us immediately to accelerate our growth on key fronts.

“Crucially, we are strengthening our key team with key hires.”

Moray Martin, CEO of Tricapital Angels, said: “Beta Bugs is clearly on a strong growth trajectory, and we remain dedicated to strengthening our partnership with them to support their mission of delivering high-quality insect genetics and products.

Scottish Enterprise director of entrepreneurship and investment Kerry Sharp said: “There are several industries of the future where Scotland has global strengths, including industrial biotechnology, and building on that through support for companies such as Beta Bugs is crucial to their continued growth.”

The investment deal follows a record-breaking year for Tricapital Angels, which completed 18 deals throughout 2024.

Its high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth members subscribed more than £3.5 million of their own money into some of the country’s most innovative companies over the past 12 months.

That investment has leveraged close to £30m of investment overall helping to create more than 500 jobs in sectors ranging from artificial intelligence and biotech to renewable energy.

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