This week, Florida-based sustainable fertilizer startup Anuvia announced the successful raise of $65.5 million in Series D venture capital funding. The round was led by Riverstone Holdings, a private markets investor in energy and infrastructure decarbonization firms, and Bay Area clean-tech investor Piva Capital. Other participants included Morgan Stanley Investment Management, LK Advisers Limited (the Mittal Family Office), along with a prior investor, the Pontifax Global Food and Agriculture Technology Fund.
In an official announcement confirming the round, Anuvia said it plans to use its new funds increase production capacity at its U.S.-based eco-friendly manufacturing facility and expand commercialization of its SymTRX XP line of field-ready bio-based fertilizers for large-scale agriculture.
The funding comes at a time when the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has pledged $250 million to support “innovative American-made fertilizers,” which Anuvia said underscores the need to reduce dependence on traditional fertilizers sourced internationally.
“With consumers, regulators, and the public pushing for more sustainable food production methods, Anuvia is focused on rapidly increasing manufacturing capacity of our field-ready bio-based plant nutrient system,” Anuvia CEO Amy Yoder said. “Anuvia’s production is entirely U.S. based, ensuring supply-chain security for North American growers.”
Recently, Anuvia completed the expansion of its facility in Plant City, Florida. The facility has the capacity to expand to 1.2 million tons per year, enough to service over 20 million acres of agricultural crops and meet the growing demand for sustainable products. This production facility represents a novel, sustainable approach to repurposing and extending the useful life of idled fertilizer manufacturing facilities. Its manufacturing forms a closed loop in which no waste stream is created—only clean air and finished product. For every ton of organic material used, approximately a ton of fertilizer is produced.
“We believe Anuvia occupies a unique niche in the fertilizer value chain by delivering a sustainable product that decarbonizes existing on-farm practices while improving yields at attractive ROIs for row crop growers,” said Riverstone Holdings Managing Director Cynthia Kueppers. “Through its waste-to-value production process and reduced reliance on traditional nutrition derived from fossil fuels, Anuvia is positioned to become a key player in transitioning the industry to more sustainable growing practices.”
According to a 2019 environmental audit conducted by Environmental Resources Management (ERM) and provided by Anuvia, for every million acres of crops that use Anuvia’s products, the reduction of greenhouse gases is the equivalent of removing up to 30,000 cars from the roads.
“The world’s agriculture market is facing unprecedented times,” said Mark Gudiksen, Managing Partner at Piva Capital. “From shortages in food production due to rising energy prices coupled with the recent dramatic fall off in supply availability of fertilizer, there has never been a greater need for sustainable bio-based fertilizers like Anuvia’s. The company not only has the ability to scale world-class manufacturing capacity that can help farmers produce crops that reduce greenhouse gasses, but it can also do so at a scale and speed that will help address the challenges facing global fertilizer supply.”
Earlier this month, Anuvia was named one of the Americas’ Fastest Growing Companies 2022 by the Financial Times (FT). Of the 500 companies named on the list, Anuvia had a 43.6 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in revenue between 2017 and 2020. The list was compiled by the FT and Statista.
