London Startups Win £1.5M to Fight Food Waste With Insects

Flybox and Permia Sensing beat out 1,215 competitors from 113 countries to win the UAE's FoodTech Challenge, one of the world's most prestigious agricultural innovation competitions. The prize brings them £1.5 million in funding and a chance to transform how we grow food in harsh climates.

Flybox, founded in 2021, tackles food waste with an elegant solution: black soldier fly larvae. Their modular units fit inside shipping containers and work off-grid, converting agricultural waste into high-quality protein for animal feed and fertilizer for crops. The system requires minimal expertise and costs far less than traditional waste management.

Larry Kotch, Flybox's founder, plans to use the prize money to open an R&D center at the University of Sharjah and build a large-scale site in Kenya. The company already operates in Uganda, Kenya, and Nigeria, keeping tons of waste out of landfills while creating valuable products farmers actually need.

Permia Sensing took a different approach to the same problem: reducing crop loss. The red palm weevil alone destroys £1.5 billion worth of palm crops globally each year, often undetected until it's too late. Permia's solution combines AI, drones, satellites, and bioacoustic sensors that actually listen to trees for early signs of pest damage and stress.

Founder Efrem de Paiva sees the win as more responsibility than trophy. His team will use the funding for faster field trials and stronger support for growers across the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa. The technology helps farmers catch problems weeks earlier, saving crops and reducing waste.

Both startups join an impressive alumni network. Previous FoodTech Challenge winners have raised over £37 million in follow-on funding and launched more than 50 pilot projects. Several UK winners have established multi-million-pound joint ventures in the UAE and expanded across similar climate-stressed regions.

The competition, now in its third year, is organized by the UAE Presidential Court and Tamkeen, partnering with the Gates Foundation and UAE food security initiatives. The timing couldn't be better as climate change makes traditional farming increasingly difficult in arid regions.

The Ripple Effect

These solutions reach far beyond the Middle East. Flybox's approach works anywhere food waste piles up, turning a costly disposal problem into a profitable protein source. Permia's sensors protect not just date palms in the Gulf, but coconut and oil palms across the tropics where millions depend on these crops for their livelihoods.

The winners prove that innovation doesn't require massive labs or billion-dollar budgets. Sometimes it takes listening to trees or watching how insects naturally decompose waste. Both companies are creating jobs in sustainable agriculture while making food systems more resilient where they're needed most.

The future of farming looks smarter, cleaner, and surprisingly full of insects doing what they do best.