Backed by Mayfield, Startup Transforms Climate-Harming Methane into an Agricultural Resource
Windfall Bio, an agtech/climate startup focused on transforming dilute methane emissions into value-add products, announced today the close of a $9 million seed round led by Mayfield and UNTITLED—a venture fund founded by Magnus Rausing of the TetraLaval Family—with participation from additional investors including B37 Ventures, Baruch Future Ventures, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Cavallo Ventures. The newly created company is developing the first-ever solution for capturing and transforming climate-harming methane emissions into living organic fertilizer. Windfall Bio is addressing dilute methane emissions, one of the largest and most underappreciated problems for global warming. Windfall Bio will use the capital to begin pilot deployments on farms while also accelerating R&D activities.
“Our methane-to-fertilizer solution is a paradigm shift for climate technologies,” said Josh Silverman, CEO and co-founder of Windfall Bio. “We are empowering farmers of all sizes to be a part of the methane solution, improving efficiency and reducing costs while also helping them reduce their reliance on synthetic fertilizers. Windfall’s technology represents a unique win-win-win for farmers, consumers, and climate.”
Windfall Bio’s solution uses proprietary nature-based technology that enriches natural methane-eating microbes (MEMs) from the soil. These organisms consume methane directly while also capturing nitrogen from the air to produce an organic fertilizer with potentially better bioavailability, reduced runoff, and reduced downstream emissions compared to synthetic ammonia fertilizers. The result is a living organic fertilizer that is more natural for soils and for the environment, available at the same price as current organic fertilizers.
“Windfall Bio is establishing a new market and creating a new category with a solution that can drastically slow climate change while supporting a resilient food supply chain,” said Arvind Gupta, a partner at Mayfield and board member at Windfall Bio. “This will help farmers improve soil health, creating a circular economy necessary for closing the loop on carbon cycling in agriculture.”
Global methane emissions in 2022 were around 580 million metric tons, which includes emissions from natural sources (around 40 percent of the total) and from human activity (around 60 percent of the total), and each ton of methane is responsible for 86x more warming than carbon dioxide over a 20-year time window. Methane’s accumulation in the atmosphere has accelerated rapidly and methane is now responsible for over half of current atmospheric warming. Addressing methane emissions is the most impactful strategy available today to address near-term climate change. However, most methane that is emitted today is too dilute to capture economically. Windfall Bio enables farmers and other stakeholders to capture this currently wasted resource, improving efficiency and overall economics.
“Breakthrough Energy is increasingly focused on solutions that address methane removal efficiently. Windfall Bio is unique in that they have unlocked a way to leverage the power of biology to address dilute methane emissions while making valuable agricultural products,” said Carmichael Roberts of Breakthrough Energy Ventures. “The company is one of the first to tackle very dilute and atmospheric methane removal, especially in agriculture, and we look forward to the impact Windfall will make.”
Windfall Bio enables sustainable farming practices for both large and small farms by providing a low-cost, low-maintenance solution to capture methane emissions which are currently regarded as waste. This approach allows operators to transform these waste emissions to high-value organic fertilizer that can be used directly on-site or can be sold to local organic farms to generate new revenue streams.
“The demand for high-quality organic fertilizers continues to grow,” said Brett Morris, a partner at Cavallo Ventures, the venture capital arm of Wilbur Ellis, a leading marketer, distributor and manufacturer of agricultural products and animal nutrients. “Fertilizer is the basis of all agriculture, and farmers are looking for options for sustainable, local production rather than being dependent on international supply chains, which have proven to be unreliable over the past few years. Windfall Bio’s solution is especially attractive as it allows farmers to harvest a resource that has been historically out of reach to produce products that directly improve their bottom line while having the additional benefit of being good for the environment.”
About Windfall Bio
Windfall Bio is a nature-based agricultural technology company that harnesses methane-eating microbes to transform harmful methane into organic soil nutrients on site. Windfall Bio will drastically reduce the carbon footprint of the Earth’s food system, increasing profits for the farmers that feed our communities without increasing costs to consumers. Windfall Bio provides microbes, digestors, and associated services that allow for the capture and transformation of methane from a variety of sources, including direct capture of methane carbon from the atmosphere.
Founded in 2022 and based in Menlo Park, CA, Windfall Bio is venture-backed by top-tier firms including Mayfield, UNTITLED, B37 Ventures, Baruch Future Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, and Cavallo Ventures.
To learn more about Windfall Bio’s solution and its benefits for farmers and everyday eaters, visit www.windfall.bio.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230322005297/en/
Contacts
Media:
Megan Nealon for Windfall Bio
V2 Communications
windfallbio@v2comms.com
