In agriculture, the invisible stuff often carries the heaviest weight. Nitrogen fertilizer has fed billions, but it has also dragged an energy chain around the planet’s ankle. The old guard, Haber-Bosch, runs on natural gas and leaves the atmosphere with a tab we’ll be paying for centuries. Enter Nitricity, a Fremont-born disruptor with a taste for almond shells, renewable electrons, and a mission to make nitrogen clean, local, and organic. Founded in 2018 by Stanford minds Dr. Nicolas Pinkowski, Dr. Joshua McEnaney, and Dr. Jay Schwalbe, this crew didn’t settle for making incremental tweaks. They built an electrochemical platform that transforms agricultural waste into “Ash Tea,” a pathogen-free, animal-free liquid nitrogen fertilizer designed to flow seamlessly through fertigation systems. In other words: nitrogen that doesn’t choke the planet while feeding it.
Yesterday, Nitricity announced a $50 million Series B round led by World Fund and Khosla Ventures, with Cultivate Next (Chipotle), Change Forces, Susquehanna Sustainable Investments, Energy Impact Partners, and Fine Structure Ventures all buying in. That roster reads like the Champions League of climate capital, each firm betting that organic growers don’t just want sustainability stickers, they want scalable solutions that perform in the field. For Nitricity, this isn’t a vanity check. It is fuel to commission their first commercial facility in Delhi, California, capable of producing 8,500 tons annually and already sold out through 2028 under binding offtake agreements. That’s not hype, that’s demand.
Field trials have already delivered yield bumps of up to 30 percent, proving that Ash Tea isn’t a science project, it is a market-ready punch to the fertilizer status quo. With the Series B, Nitricity will add twenty-plus roles in Merced County, expand their Fremont R&D bench, and start laying the groundwork for European pilots. This is scaling without smoke and mirrors, rooted in partnerships with growers, Olam Food Ingredients, and regional conservation districts. The vision is bigger than one crop or one region. Think modular reactors tucked into agricultural hubs, turning local waste into local fertilizer while cutting emissions on both production and transport.
The leadership team is locked in. Dr. Nicolas Pinkowski runs the CEO play with the precision of an engineer who knows this isn’t theory anymore. Dr. Joshua McEnaney doubles as President and CTO, bringing electrochemistry from lab to plant floor. Dr. Jay Schwalbe keeps the science sharp as CSO. Commercial growth is in the hands of Jayesh Goyal, while Yasi Jiang steers finance, Rob Martinson scales engineering, and Brad Brech drives operations. This crew isn’t just building reactors, they’re building a decentralized system for how we grow food in a hotter, more volatile world.
The fertilizer market sits at $150 billion and grows every year. Organic growers have been underserved, stuck between high costs and inconsistent supply. Nitricity is positioning to change that, with OMRI and CDFA certifications already in place and eyes on ammonia and nitric acid modules to serve broader crop mixes. What we’re watching is not just another funding round, it’s the birth of a platform that could finally unchain agriculture from its century-old dependence on fossil-fueled nitrogen.
