NPHarvest Selected for Business Finland Deep Tech Accelerator with €1.2M Funding Pathway to Advance Nutrient Recovery

The funding, awarded under Business Finland’s Deep Tech Accelerator call, will support the phased commercialization of NPHarvest’s nutrient recovery technology. It builds on recent technical progress and earlier public and private backing.

Helsinki, Finland (January 20th, 2026) — NPHarvest, a Finnish cleantech company developing fertilizer inputs from liquid waste streams, has been selected for up to €1.2 million in funding from Business Finland, the country’s public organization for innovation funding and international growth. The funding is part of Business Finland’s Deep Tech Accelerator (DTA), which supports a selective cohort of research-driven companies as they scale internationally, based on technical depth and readiness for global commercialization. The funding is structured in three phases tied to technical and commercial milestones, supporting the continued development and scale-up of NPHarvest’s nutrient recovery technology.

In Europe, a growing share of liquid waste comes from the expanding organic waste-to-energy sector. In regions such as Northern Germany, Northern France, and the Benelux, many plants are now facing nutrient overload. Under EU limits on nitrogen application, excess liquid digestate can no longer be spread locally, pushing operators to transport it over increasing distances at rising cost.

NPHarvest addresses this bottleneck by recovering nutrients from liquid waste and converting them into usable fertilizer inputs. The company’s work shows how nutrient recovery can move beyond pilot projects toward repeatable deployment, offering a scalable, export-ready solution for Europe’s largest waste-to-energy and fertilizer markets.

“In Europe, the limiting factor in fertilizer production is no longer nutrient availability, but how and where those nutrients can be recovered and reused,” said Juho Uzkurt Kaljunen, CEO of NPHarvest. “Large volumes already exist in liquid waste streams generated by waste-to-energy plants, yet current systems struggle to convert them into inputs that can be used where they’re permitted and needed. This funding allows us to translate that constraint into repeatable, scalable deployments.”

The Business Finland Deep Tech Accelerator funds build on €2.2 million in previous funding from industry-leading investors, including Nordic Foodtech VC and the Finnish Ministry of the Environment, and follows a year of technical progress: Throughout 2025, NPHarvest achieved significant technical milestones built on previous research at Aalto University, including the launch of its first industrial-scale demonstrator nutrient recovery unit at a waste-to-energy plant in Ankara, Türkiye. Additionally, field trials carried out with the University of Helsinki’s Viikki research farm showed that NPHarvest’s recycled nitrogen and phosphorus perform on par with conventional synthetic fertilizers.

With Deep Tech Accelerator funding in place, NPHarvest will continue advancing its nutrient recovery technology while preparing for full-scale commercialization and broader deployment, focusing on translating validated performance into repeatable, scalable systems for agricultural and industrial use.

About NPHarvest

NPHarvest, a spinout from Aalto University, is reducing reliance on imported nutrients with its patented technology. NPHarvest grows the net value of wastewater by efficiently capturing, refining, and recirculating nutrients in a way that has not been possible before. This creates cost savings and a positive environmental impact for wastewater treatment facilities, waste-to-energy plants, and animal farms – while also being easy to operate. With €2.2M funding raised from industry-leading investors such as Nordic Foodtech VC and the Finnish Ministry of the Environment. NPHarvest’s team has also won numerous awards for their groundbreaking work, including four awards for academic research, and several pitching awards such as “Save the Baltic Sea 2025” and European Biomethane Week’s “Inspiration Challenge 2024.” Learn more at npharvest.fi.