Windfall Bio Expands Production Capacity to Accelerate Commercialization of Methane Capture & Transformation Solution
July 16 2024 - 9:00AM
Business Wire
Fueled by Series A and customer demand,
Windfall opens new R&D facility and more than triples in team
size to scale pilots from lab to field trials across agriculture,
oil and gas, and waste management sectors
Windfall Bio, a leader in methane-to-value solutions, announced
it has nearly doubled its production capacity with a new research
and development facility to support its robust commercial pipeline.
Located in San Mateo, California, and equipped with
state-of-the-art laboratories and collaborative work areas, this
new facility will serve as Windfall’s R&D hub to evaluate and
optimize operating conditions for on-site pilot deployments of its
nature-based solution across a range of applications.
Since the company exited stealth mode in 2023, Windfall has
undergone rapid growth. Notably, the company recently appointed
Forrest Baringer-Jones as Windfall’s Chief Financial Officer, Luan
Nguyen as Senior Vice President of Technology and Head of Methane
Emissions Solutions, and McKenzie Wilson as Director of Carbon
Accounting. An experienced executive and advisor in the climate
tech space, Forrest will utilize his expertise to strategically
scale Windfall’s methane mitigation solution across industries.
With over 25 years of R&D experience, Luan will focus on
process development and technology deployment. McKenzie, who most
recently served as a manager of ESG and sustainability services at
Deloitte, will lead ESG reporting, product life cycle analysis,
carbon credit methodology, and development of Windfall’s
monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) services.
Additionally, Carla Risso and Judy Su, members of Windfall’s
founding team, have been named to the leadership team as their
roles evolved in tandem with company growth. With these critical
hires and others, Windfall has grown from five employees to nearly
30 and expects to continue hiring in R&D, engineering,
scientific operations, and finance roles.
“Windfall’s new space represents a significant step forward in
our mission to empower customers across industries to eliminate
harmful methane emissions and create valuable outputs in return,”
said Josh Silverman, co-founder and CEO of Windfall Bio. “We’ve
gained commercial traction and customer interest across multiple
sectors and geographies, and are ramping up our manufacturing
efforts to meet that demand. We are intentionally hiring for roles
that not only support bringing Windfall’s solution to market but
ensure we are addressing our customers’ needs and challenges.”
Methane is a harmful greenhouse gas that is 86x more warming
than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period, yet it can also be a
valuable resource. Capturing these emissions represents an
opportunity to reduce global emissions quickly and significantly.
Windfall’s nature-based solution harnesses methane-eating
microbes—referred to as mems—to capture and transform methane from
any source into valuable outputs, like organic fertilizer.
Depending on the application, Windfall’s mems create value in
different forms, including producing nitrogen rich fertilizer,
enabling emissions reductions and compliance, improving resource
efficiency, increasing soil health, and generating new revenue
streams for customers with wasted methane resources. This new
facility and growing team enable Windfall to focus on refining its
innovative solution per application use to meet the needs of each
customer industry. The learnings and data collected from the
expanded R&D work will be incorporated throughout in-field
pilot deployments on the company’s path to commercialization.
These milestones come on the heels of Windfall’s recent $28
million Series A, led by Prelude Ventures with participation from
Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund and others. Further validating the
need and promise for its methane mitigation solution across
industries, the fresh financing came just a year after Windfall’s
$9 million seed raise in March 2023, bringing the company’s total
fundraising amount to $37 million.
About Windfall Bio
Windfall Bio has developed a sustainable solution to capture and
transform climate-harming methane emissions into organic
fertilizer, addressing both an underappreciated contributor to
climate change as well as the negative environmental impacts
associated with the overuse of synthetic fertilizer. Windfall’s
nature-based solution harnesses methane-eating microbes to
transform methane from any source into valuable outputs, creating a
rare win-win-win scenario for the planet, producers, and consumers.
The company’s solution allows industries such as agriculture, oil
and gas, and waste management to reduce their methane footprint
while operating more efficiently and improving their profitability
and environmental impact. Founded in 2022 and based in San Mateo,
CA, Windfall Bio is venture-backed by top-tier firms including
Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund, B37 Ventures, Baruch Future Ventures,
Bessemer Venture Partners, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Cavallo
Ventures, Global Brain (through its Norinchukin Innovation Fund
L.P.), Incite Ventures, MCJ Collective, Mayfield, Positive
Ventures, Prelude Ventures, and UNTITLED (a fund backed by the
Tetra Laval family). To learn more about how Windfall Bio turns a
climate and business woe into a windfall, visit
www.windfall.bio.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240711454948/en/
Megan Nealon for Windfall Bio V2 Communications
windfallbio@v2comms.com