🔎 What’s going on?
Agtech startup, Pivot Bio raises $100million series-C funding lead by Breakthrough Ventures Fund and Temasak to disrupt the nitrogen fertiliser market.
🌱 Cool, tell me more!
Over 100 years ago, two chemists, Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch invented synthetic (man-made) nitrogen fertilisers to increase crop yields. The size of the global market for synthetic nitrogen fertiliser is $65bn. Today’s industrial-scale farms would not be possible without them, however, they also contribute to greenhouse gas emissions and water pollution.
Pivot has created a method to ‘reawaken and rediscover” nitrogen-fixing microbes in the soil so farmers don’t have to apply as much synthetic nitrogen fertiliser. Whilst some crops like peas, beans and soybeans naturally have a link with nitrogen-fixing bacteria. However, cereal crops like corn and wheat do not. First, to market, the Pivot Bio PROVEN product has sold out with corn farmers in both seasons in the US market. The funding will now enable the startup to expand into wheat crop and enter Latin America and Canada markets.
❓Why should I care?
Nitrogen is essential for life on Earth. Like the carbon cycle, a nitrogen cycle exists and it describes how nitrogen moves between plants, animals, bacteria, the air (atmosphere) and soil in the ground. Bacteria helps nitrogen change states so that it can be used by different life forms in different states. For example, bacteria help convert nitrogen into ammonium (called Fixation), then bacteria again convert it into nitrates (called Nitrification) which are then absorbed by plants.
3% of worldwide global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions come from the production and use of industrial nitrogen fertilizers. There are three key GHG emissions that come from agricultural crops: carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O). Turns out, nitrous oxide is 298 times more potent than carbon dioxide and is a very important GHG emitted from field crops. Methane is
Over time, the runoff of excess nitrogen fertiliser from farms can cause dead zones in oceans and water pollution of drinking water supplies.
🚦 Where do we need to be?
We need to drastically reduce global dependency on damaging synthetic fertiliser, whilst also continuing to increase crop yields.
👤 What can I do about it?
Buy organic produce where possible - not only is it good for your health but it’s even better for the environment.