Nottingham-based agtech group NZN – brief for NetZeroNitrogen – has secured a $6.6m (£4.8m) seed funding to gasoline its mission to scale back reliance on dangerous fertilisers.
Based in 2022, NZN is growing a biofertiliser that makes use of endophytic micro organism to switch the agricultural trade’s reliance on artificial nitrogen fertilisers, a generally used product that has been discovered to each harm soil well being and improve greenhouse gasoline emissions.
Not solely does the startup declare its product is extra environmentally sustainable than artificial nitrogen fertilisers however also can improve yields with out added prices.
“Most options include a inexperienced premium however that is successfully a inexperienced low cost – we’re greener and cheaper on the identical time,” stated Justin Hughes, co-founder and chief government of NZN.
“The time is completely ripe for our product: the dependency on SNF is unsustainable. We’re taking up a problem with international penalties.”
The spherical got here from a handful of climate-focused buyers. World Fund and Azolla Ventures co-led the spherical. Different backers embrace Zero Carbon Capital, Revent and Kibo Make investments.
“Widespread use of urea, ammonium and nitrate-based fertilisers is without doubt one of the world’s largest sources of greenhouse gasoline emissions, and it’s leaving soil microbiomes in a dire state the world over,” stated World Fund principal Dr Nadine Geiser.
“NZN presents the perfect resolution. This thrilling biotech firm faces no regulatory boundaries to rapid adoption, and it has a strong founding crew with the proper mixture of scientific and entrepreneurial experience to succeed.”
The seed funding has introduced the entire quantity of funding raised by the corporate to $8.3m (£6m).
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