Key Takeaways
- NPHarvest has been selected for up to €1.2 million in funding from Business Finland.
- The funding is provided through Business Finland’s Deep Tech Accelerator program.
- Support will be delivered in phases tied to technical and commercial milestones.
- NPHarvest focuses on recovering nutrients from liquid waste streams to produce fertilizer inputs.
- The company is preparing for broader commercialization following successful pilots and field trials.
Business Finland Selects NPHarvest for Deep Tech Accelerator Program
NPHarvest, a Finnish cleantech company developing fertilizer inputs from liquid waste streams, has been selected to receive up to €1.2 million in funding from Business Finland. The funding is provided through Business Finland’s Deep Tech Accelerator (DTA), a program designed to support research-driven companies with strong technical foundations as they scale toward international markets.
The funding is structured across three phases and is tied to the achievement of defined technical and commercial milestones. According to Business Finland, the DTA program targets companies with technologies that demonstrate readiness for global commercialization.
Addressing Nutrient Overload in Europe’s Waste-to-Energy Sector
Across Europe, the growth of the organic waste-to-energy sector has led to increasing volumes of liquid digestate. In regions such as Northern Germany, Northern France, and the Benelux, operators are facing nutrient overload due to regulatory limits on nitrogen application. As a result, excess digestate often needs to be transported over long distances, increasing operational costs.
NPHarvest’s technology focuses on recovering nitrogen and phosphorus from these liquid waste streams and converting them into usable fertilizer inputs. The company positions its approach as a way to move nutrient recovery beyond pilot-scale projects toward repeatable and scalable deployment for agricultural and industrial use.
Juho Uzkurt Kaljunen, CEO of NPHarvest, said, “In Europe, the limiting factor in fertilizer production is no longer nutrient availability, but how and where those nutrients can be recovered and reused.” He added that the funding will support the transition from technical validation to scalable deployment.
Technical Progress and Demonstration Projects
The Deep Tech Accelerator funding builds on €2.2 million in prior funding from investors including Nordic Foodtech VC and the Finnish Ministry of the Environment. In 2025, NPHarvest reached several technical milestones, building on earlier research conducted at Aalto University.
These milestones included the launch of the company’s first industrial-scale demonstrator nutrient recovery unit at a waste-to-energy plant in Ankara, Türkiye. In addition, field trials conducted with the University of Helsinki’s Viikki research farm indicated that recycled nitrogen and phosphorus produced by NPHarvest performed on par with conventional synthetic fertilizers.
Path Toward Commercial Scale-Up For NPHarvest
With the DTA funding in place, NPHarvest plans to continue advancing its nutrient recovery technology while preparing for full-scale commercialization. The company stated that its focus will be on translating validated technical performance into repeatable systems that can be deployed across European waste-to-energy and fertilizer markets.
