Horsham entrepreneur wins major award for 'bug-growing' business
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Twenty-eight-year-old Thomas Constant has created a home composting kit – ‘The Bug Factory’ – which consists of insect-growing-pods that make home-composting easier by repurposing waste into both plant fertiliser and pet food.
His business has already won an Innovate UK award and has now also notched up a Young Innovators Next Steps Award.
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Hide AdThomas has designed, tested and successfully launched the Bug Factory’s ‘mealworm growing pods’. They now operate across the UK, EU and North America.
His latest award sees a further boost to his business with a £50,000 fresh investment to support his future business plans.
Thomas said: “Winning Innovate UK’s Young Innovator Award was really beneficial for me, the funding and mentoring has been vital to the business’ progress, but networking was the biggest game-changer for me as a young entrepreneur.
"With the help of the Young Innovators Next Steps Award we want to scale up and get closer to our ambition to be a significant sustainable business.”
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Hide AdThomas is one of two award winners in the south east. Kieran Witt, 30, from Essex, is the founder of Kotini, a platform that helps home buyers ‘build’ their own specialised home-buying team – from finding the perfect mortgage broker to identifying the insurance packages right for them.
Innovate UK chief executive Indro Mukerjee said: “Innovate UK is committed to inspiring and supporting the next generation of innovators, as they will play a critical role in the UK’s future economy.
"The team congratulates the Young Innovators Next Step award winners and looks forward to seeing their businesses develop further.”