Grub Club makes pet food made with insect protein, delivering hypoallergenic, gut-friendly nutrition that is also kinder to the planet.
See our guide to this year’s hottest new businesses and most exceptional founders in the complete 2026 Startups 100 index.
Founders: Alessandro Di Trapani and Hugh Petit
Year founded: 2020
Website: mygrubclub.com
“Pets consume 20% of the world’s meat and fish, fueling more than 100 million tonnes of CO2eq. emissions annually,” share founders Alessandro Di Trapani and Hugh Petit. Their venture, Grub Club Pets, set about changing this by replacing meat with insect protein.
The UK has been their initial focus, where 59% of households own pets. Here, the duo explains, they are tapping into three trends. “Climate-conscious consumption, rising pet humanisation, and booming demand for sensitive and functional pet diets.”
The latter, the founders claim, is an underserved market with one in five dogs now claimed to suffer from allergies, intolerances, or sensitivities in their lifetime.
With the three pillars in mind, the founders created Grub Club Pets, which delivers “insect-powered nutrition that’s hypoallergenic, highly digestible, and packed with all the essential nutrients dogs need to thrive”. Having worked directly with vets and nutritionists to get the formulations right, they report that 76% of customers now buy the products because of the gut-health and allergy-friendly properties; and vets even recommend them.
Mother Earth is also being kept happy. One tonne of insects can be grown in two weeks, using 20sqm of land, and with less than 30 litres of water, they share.
We found that each dog switching to Grub Club from a meat-based diet can save 1.5 tonnes of CO2eq. emissions per year,
“We found that each dog switching to Grub Club from a meat-based diet can save 1.5 tonnes of CO2eq. emissions per year,” they quantify, adding that, “if just one percent of the UK’s 12 million dogs made the switch, that’s 180,000 tonnes of CO2eq. saved, which is the equivalent of 75,000 homes’ annual electricity usage”.
Since we last featured Grub Club in 2025, the brand is now on the shelves at 460 Pets at Home stores nationwide, and is also listed with Abel & Cole, Planet Organic and Daylesford Organic. The team has also racked up several awards, including being named a Sky Zero Footprint Fund Grand Prix Winner.
Revenue growth has doubled from 2023 to 2024 and the brand is now aiming to be the go-to for pooches with sensitivities. Have you joined Grub Club yet?
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