Nitricity makes Ash Tea, a fully organic liquid nitrogen fertilizer produced from recycled almond shells, air, water and renewable power. Ash Tea is pathogen-free, animal-product-free, flows through irrigation systems, and field trials report up to 30% yield increases; the company says every ounce of current production is already commissioned. The company operates a pilot factory in Fremont that produces about 80 tons of fertilizer per year, feeding roughly 80 acres, and has secured over $150M in its sales pipeline. Founded in 2018 by Stanford graduates, Nitricity has a 38-person team and plans to add 10+ hires while investing further in R&D. It is building a first-of-a-kind commercial plant in Delhi, California slated to begin operation in 2026 that represents a 100-fold increase in capacity and whose full production is sold out through 2028 under binding offtake agreements. Nitricity plans to scale across the US and into Europe, run pilot and field trials using local agricultural wastes, and expand into additional crops such as corn and wheat. Nitricity brews a plant‑based organic nitrogen fertilizer using recycled almond shells, renewable power, air and water; the product is pathogen‑free, odor‑free, designed for irrigation‑line application, and is registered with OMRI and CDFA OIM. The company is scaling to commercial volumes with a first‑of‑a‑kind (FOAK) facility in Delhi, California slated to begin operation in 2026 and representing a 100‑fold increase in production capacity. That plant’s full production capacity is already sold out through 2028 under binding offtake agreements with local organic growers. Nitricity aims to produce hundreds of tons of low‑carbon nitrogen by 2028 while strengthening a regional circular bioeconomy. The project is expected to create about 20 jobs for fabrication, deployment, and maintenance. The company was founded by Stanford graduate students in 2018 and operates out of Fremont and is developing the Delhi facility in Merced County. Nitricity is a San Francisco, California–based company developing cleaner, more sustainable, and cost-efficient nitrogen fertilizer by leveraging air, water, and renewable energy from artificial lightning. The company is led by co‑founder and CEO Nico Pinkowski. Chipotle Mexican Grill is making a minority investment in Nitricity through its $50 million Cultivate Next venture fund. Funding will be used to scale Nitricity’s production of nitrogen, build out the company’s infrastructure, and support the launch of its first commercial product within the next two years. Nitricity has begun field trials with Salinas Valley farmers, including Chipotle suppliers in the region. The investment aligns with Chipotle’s mission to “Cultivate a Better World” and is intended to accelerate the restaurant’s growth plans by supporting strategically aligned early‑stage companies. Nitricity has developed a containerized system that uses electricity from an adjacent solar array to generate localized "lightning," producing fixed nitrogen in a water solution that is injected into a farm's irrigation system. The product is installed as an irrigation pump extension and is designed to decentralize fertilizer manufacture at the farm level. The company has run multiple pilots on commercial-scale farming operations to test the technology. Management says funds will be used to scale the business as they ready the technology for market. CEO and co-founder Nicolas Pinkowski has stated the company has "aggressive growth plans in motion." Backing from investors is framed as a vote of confidence in the approach. Nitricity plans to have its technology in the market within the next two years. Nitricity has developed a proprietary system that connects to farm hardware to produce decentralized, renewable nitrogen fertilizer from air, water and electricity. The company is deploying pilot systems on Terranova Ranch and working with Fresno’s Center for Irrigation Technology to fertigate processing tomatoes, and it operates a commercial-scale pilot for fertigating green peppers. Nitricity says its approach can eliminate up to 1 gigaton of carbon-equivalent per year by cutting CO2 and nitrous oxide emissions and by decentralizing the supply chain. The team, founded by Ph.D. and post-doctoral students from Stanford, is scaling what it describes as the world’s only on-farm, cost-effective decarbonized solution to fertilizer production. With the new funding the company plans to accelerate innovations and recruit engineering talent in climate tech and agriculture. Nitricity is actively hiring and continuing field deployments to commercialize its solar-fertilizer-enabled irrigation systems.

Total raised

$65M

Funding rounds

3

Latest round

Series B

Latest activity

Sep 2025