kula bio：Kula Bio closes $50m round for sustainable nitrogen fertilizer

Disclosure: AgFunder[1], AFN’s parent company, is an investor in Kula Bio[2]. 

Kula Bio, a US-based startup developing a biological fertilizer, has raised $50 million in Series A funding to increase production capacity and further innovate on its technology. [3]

The round was led by Lowercarbon Capital[4] with participation from Collaborative Fund[5], Grantham Environmental Trust’s Neglected Climate Opportunities Fund[6] and iSelect Fund[7]. Other investors included Pillar VC[8], Embark Ventures[9] and BOPU[10]. The Series A follows a $10 million seed round in May 2021, in which AgFunder participated. Kula Bio was founded in 2018.

Kula’s product, Kula-N, is a microbial product leveraging the bacteria Xanthobacter autotrophicus, which has been removing nitrogen from the air and putting it in the soil for millennia. Kula-N also “energizes” the bacteria with a carbon-rich energy source that allows the bacteria to build up larger-than-nor...