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—a venture fund founded by Magnus Rausing of the TetraLaval Family—the round also saw participation from investors including B37 Ventures, Baruch Future Ventures, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Cavallo Ventures. The company is developing a solution to capture and transform environmental damage caused by methane emissions into living organic fertilizer. Windfall Bio plans to use its funds for pilot deployments on farms as well as R&D activities to combat one of the major climate challenges: dilute methane emissions.
Windfall Bio provides a nature-based solution that enriches natural methane-eating microbes (MEMs). These organisms can consume methane and capture nitrogen from the air. The advantage of this process is an organic fertilizer with improved bioavailability, reduced runoff, and decreased emissions compared to conventional synthetic ammonia fertilizers. In addition, the living organic fertilizer meets current market prices while being gentler on soils and the environment.
According to Arvind Gupta, a partner at Mayfield and Windfall Bio board member, Windfall Bio is establishing a new market and creating a new category by offering a solution that can drastically slow climate change while supporting a resilient food supply chain. In addition, by improving soil health, farmers can close the carbon cycling loop by creating a circular economy.
By 2022, global methane emissions totaled around 580 million metric tons, with natural sources accounting for 40 percent and human activity making up the remaining 60 percent. Yet while each ton of methane is 86 times more potent than carbon dioxide in terms of warming over a 20-year window, its accumulation in the atmosphere has increased drastically. Now responsible for more than half of climate change emissions, curbing methane could be our most effective strategy for tackling near-term climate change. Unfortunately, though, most of today's methane is too dispersed to capture economically - until now. Windfall Bio allows farmers and other stakeholders to quickly seize this potential 'windfall', improving efficiency and profitability.
Through a low-cost, low-maintenance solution to capture methane emissions, which are currently regarded as waste, Windfall Bio enables sustainable farming practices for both large and small farms. In addition, by transforming waste emissions into organic fertilizer, operators can generate new revenue streams by using them directly on-site or by selling them to local organic farms.