Fertilizer Created From Lightning: Nitricity Raises $5 Million Seed Round to Help Farmers Produce Their Own Nitrogen Fertilizer

By AIT News Desk On Aug 12, 2021

Electrified Fertilizer Customized for Fields and Farmers Rather Than Factories and Freight; Eliminates Expensive, Hazardous Supply Chain and Reduces GHG Emissions

Nitricity, an agtech startup with unique technology to produce renewable nitrogen fertilizer at point-of-use, announced the close of a $5 million Series Seed investment round led by Energy Impact Partners, a global investment platform leading the transition to a sustainable future. The funding will enable the company to accelerate innovations and recruit top engineering talent in the climate tech and agriculture fields. The round included participation from new investor Fine Structure Ventures as well as existing investors including Lowercarbon Capital and MCJ Collective.

“Nitricity is redefining the fertilizer supply chain by putting farmers in the driver’s seat”

Nitrogen fertilizer has been one of the most important innovations of the past century, but it relies upon a highly centralized value chain that raises prices for farmers, requires dangerous transportation, and contributes 4-6% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Nitricity’s proprietary system connects directly to farm hardware and produces fertilizer using only air, water, and electricity. This breakthrough process has the potential to eliminate 1 gigaton of carbon equivalent per year from carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide while saving farmers money on even the cheapest fertilizer in the world.

“Applying nitrogen to the ground does not require emitting carbon to the sky,” said Nico Pinkowski, CEO and Co-Founder of Nitricity. “Nitricity creates fertilizers that are customized for fields and farmers, rather than optimized for factories and freight. Electrifying and decentralizing fertilizer production will provide farmers a better product, reduce emissions and improve safety. It’s as simple as that.”

Nitricity’s system is producing fertilizer on Terranova Ranch in Fresno County, as well as other farms in the region – one of the most productive agricultural territories in the world. Additionally, in collaboration with Fresno’s Center for Irrigation Technology, Nitricity is running a functional pilot system that is being used to fertigate processing tomatoes. The company also has a commercial-scale pilot that is being used to fertigate green peppers. Both projects use solar-fertilizer technology to enable an irrigation system to produce and inject its own nitrogen fertilizer compounds.

“Nitricity is redefining the fertilizer supply chain by putting farmers in the driver’s seat,” said Shayle Kann, Partner at Energy Impact Partners. “Instead of being reliant on a massive, centralized supply chain with high price volatility, farmers can produce exactly the fertilizer they need, on-farm, and reduce their climate impact in the process.”