Windfall Bio, an agtech/climate startup focused on transforming dilute methane emissions into value-add products, announced the close of a $9 million seed round led by Mayfield and UNTITLED.
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. It 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.”
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.
