October 20, 2022

By Lynda Kiernan-Stone, Global AgInvesting Media

Just like the evidence of rising atmospheric CO2 levels first reported in the 1950s, there is now increasing evidence that synthetic nitrogen is correlated to the degradation of farm soils. And as food demand increases, so does the use of synthetic nitrogen, degrading more soils and intensifying the threat to our global food system – creating a negative feedback loop. 

Crops utilize only about half of the synthetic nitrogen applied to fields, and a portion is emitted as nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas that is 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide and other nitrogen gasses. This has resulted in nitrogen becoming the top source of crop-related greenhouse gas emissions.

In response, a team of graduate students from Stanford University launched Nitricity in 2018 with the goal of producing nitrogen fertilizer using only air, water, and renewable electricity. Now, within four years, Nitricity announced the close of a $20 million Series A led by Khosla Ventures and Fine Structure Ventures, with participation from Energy Impact Partners, Lowercarbon Capital, and MCJ Collective.

“Today’s fertilizer industry is facing the perfect storm of high GHG emissions, high fossil fuel consumption, rising costs and geopolitical disruptions,” said Rajesh Swaminathan, partner, Khosla Ventures. “Nitricity’s decentralized approach to manufacturing fertilizers using just air, water and renewables-based electricity was born out of a vision to completely transform a 100-year-old industry, and we are excited to be partnering with them.”

Marking a complete difference from traditional nitrogen supply chains, which are highly centralized and use costly fossil fuels and transportation, Nitricity’s approach uses a new technology for regionalized production leveraging low-cost solar or wind generated electricity.

With this funding, which brings total capital for the company to $27 million to-date, Nitricity intends to accelerate its ability to bring climate-smart fertilizer to a market that is currently experiencing historic price volatility and supply challenges.

“This electrified technology provides fertilizer in a climate-smart nitrate form, designed for efficient application, allowing it to address greenhouse gas emissions beyond ammonia-based technologies,” said Joshua McEnaney, president, CTO, and co-founder at Nitricity.

“This is an opportunity to attack not just the 1-2 percent of global GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions in the production, but the additional 5 percent of GHG emissions in the application by mitigating nitrous oxide formation. We are pushing hard to scale up and implement this solution.”

Nitricity stated that the validity of its technology has been proven in commercial-scale farming operations through multiple functional pilots, including the subsurface fertigation of tomatoes in partnership with California State University Fresno’s Center for Irrigation Technology and the Water, Energy and Technology Center.

And now, with validity, and capital in-hand, Nitricity is well-positioned to look toward commercialization.

“This fundraising round brings us one step closer toward sustainable and locally produced fertilizer,” said Nicolas Pinkowski, CEO and co-founder, Nitricity. “It’s time to bring this to market. We have aggressive growth plans in motion.”

“Nitricity has made rapid progress since our initial investment in their Seed round,” added Allison Hinckley, senior associate, Fine Structure Ventures, a VC fund affiliate of FMR LLC, the parent company of Fidelity Investments.

“In response, we are increasing our support of the company to aid in bringing their differentiated, decarbonized fertilizer products to market in the near term.”

~ Lynda Kiernan-Stone is editor in chief with GAI Media, and is managing editor and daily contributor for Global AgInvesting’s AgInvesting Weekly News and  Agtech Intel News, as well as HighQuest Group’s Unconventional Ag. She can be reached at lkiernan-stone@globalaginvesting.com.

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