NPHarvest lands major deep tech funding to scale nutrient recovery
Finnish clean tech startup NPHarvest has secured up to €1.2 million in support from Business Finland through its Deep Tech Accelerator programme. The funding will help the company scale its proprietary technology that recovers valuable nutrients from waste-to-energy digestate and converts them into compliant, market-ready fertilisers.
The award follows successful demonstration work in Ankara and further trials in Helsinki, marking a key step toward industrial deployment of the company’s circular nutrient recovery solution.
Turning waste-to-energy by-product into a fertiliser resource
Waste-to-energy plants and biogas facilities generate large volumes of digestate, a nutrient-rich residue left after the anaerobic digestion of organic waste. While digestate contains valuable nitrogen and phosphorus, it is often costly to manage, posing environmental and regulatory challenges for operators.
NPHarvest has developed a process that isolates and concentrates these nutrients, transforming what is typically treated as a disposal problem into a source of compliant fertiliser products. By doing so, the company aims to reduce both the carbon footprint and operating costs of waste-to-energy and biogas plants, while contributing to more sustainable agricultural inputs.
Backed by Business Finland Deep Tech Accelerator
The up to €1.2 million package from Business Finland’s Deep Tech Accelerator is designed to help high-potential Finnish innovators commercialise science-based technologies with global scale potential. For NPHarvest, the support will be channelled into scaling its pilot systems, optimising process performance, and preparing for broader European market entry.
Deep tech projects in this programme typically involve complex engineering, long development cycles and high initial risk. The funding is therefore a strong signal of confidence in the robustness and scalability of NPHarvest’s approach to nutrient recovery and circular fertiliser production.
From Ankara demo to Helsinki trials
The new funding comes on the back of a series of technical milestones. NPHarvest recently completed a demonstration project in Ankara, Turkey, showcasing its ability to operate under real-world conditions at a waste-to-energy or biogas facility. The Ankara demo provided crucial performance data on nutrient capture rates, energy use and operating costs.
Following this, the company conducted further trials in Helsinki, refining its process for Nordic operating conditions and regulatory frameworks. These tests have helped validate that the system can consistently produce fertiliser streams that meet European standards, while handling varying qualities of digestate.
Compliance and regulation at the core
A major focus for NPHarvest is ensuring that its recovered products comply with evolving EU fertiliser regulations and national environmental rules. The company’s technology is designed to produce fertiliser fractions with predictable nutrient content and low contaminant levels, enabling them to be integrated into existing agricultural supply chains.
By aligning with regulatory requirements from the outset, NPHarvest aims to shorten the path from pilot stage to commercial deployment, giving waste-to-energy operators a clearer route to monetising their digestate instead of paying for its disposal.
Driving circular economy in agriculture and energy
The technology developed by NPHarvest sits at the intersection of the circular economy, renewable energy and sustainable agriculture. Recovering nutrients from digestate helps reduce dependence on imported mineral fertilisers, which are typically produced using energy-intensive processes and finite resources such as phosphate rock and natural gas.
By closing the loop between urban waste streams and farmland, nutrient recovery can lower the environmental impact of food production, cut greenhouse gas emissions and reduce the risk of nutrient runoff into waterways. The approach fits closely with the European Union’s broader ambitions on resource efficiency, climate neutrality and sustainable food systems.
Market potential across Europe and beyond
Across Europe, hundreds of biogas and waste-to-energy plants face similar challenges in managing digestate volumes. This creates a sizeable addressable market for solutions that can turn that liability into a revenue-generating fertiliser product. With the support of Business Finland, NPHarvest is positioning itself as a technology partner for these operators.
The company’s successful work in Ankara also indicates potential for deployment in regions facing rapid urbanisation and growing waste management pressures. As more countries invest in biogas infrastructure and circular economy strategies, demand for proven nutrient recovery technologies is expected to increase.
Next steps: scaling pilots and forging partnerships
With the new funding in place, NPHarvest is expected to focus on scaling up its pilot units into larger demonstration systems capable of handling higher digestate volumes. This will be key to proving the economics of the technology at commercial scale and attracting industrial partners.
The company is also likely to deepen collaboration with waste-to-energy operators, agricultural input distributors and regulatory bodies to ensure that its fertiliser products can be adopted smoothly. Strategic partnerships will be critical to accelerate deployment, secure long-term feedstock agreements and integrate nutrient recovery into existing plant operations.
As the pressure mounts on both the energy and agriculture sectors to decarbonise, solutions like those offered by NPHarvest are gaining strategic importance. By converting waste streams into compliant fertilisers, the Finnish startup is aiming to demonstrate that environmental responsibility and economic value can be aligned in a single, scalable technology platform.