Horsham entrepreneur wins major award for 'bug-growing' business

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.

Thomas 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.”

Thomas 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.

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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.”