Field note
July 2026
Three portfolio companies, one strategic backer: what Chipotle's Cultivate Next signals.
In July 2026, IMIO joined Chipotle's Cultivate Next fund — making it the third Grow Together portfolio company backed by the same strategic partner, alongside Local Line and Nitricity. Three companies, three theses (commerce, inputs, biologicals), one buyer signal. When a top-ten U.S. restaurant chain writes checks across your soil biology, your fertilizer, and your farm-to-fork commerce layer, it stops being a coincidence and starts being a supply chain redesign.
Portfolio · Nitricity
Sep 2026
Nitricity awarded $5M DOE grant to scale plasma-based fertilizer production.
The Department of Energy’s Industrial Technologies Office selected Nitricity as one of 56 projects sharing $117M in non-dilutive federal funding. The grant — Project EE0011807, “Nitrogen Fixation for Production of Nitrogenous and Phosphatic Fertilizers” — funds optimization and scale-up of a plasma reactor that converts air, water, and electricity into nitrate-based fertilizer as an alternative to Haber-Bosch ammonia.
Portfolio · IMIO
Jul 8, 2026
IMIO joins Chipotle's Cultivate Next portfolio.
Chipotle's venture fund announced a strategic investment in IMIO alongside five other agrifoodtech companies (Benchmark Labs, Clean Crop Technologies, Athian, SIMPLi, PopID), citing IMIO's soil-health and agricultural biology technology.
Portfolio · IMIO
Jul 2026
Charles Smith: “Improving soil biology is how you build a resilient food system.”
Founder/CEO Charles Smith frames the Cultivate Next investment on LinkedIn, connecting soil-microbial health to broader food-system resilience.
Portfolio · Nitricity
Jun 2026
CEO Nicolas Pinkowski on “Leaders on a Mission.”
Nitricity CEO Nicolas Pinkowski joined the “Leaders on a Mission” podcast to discuss local fertilizer manufacturing and the case for rebuilding domestic nitrogen supply chains from waste streams and renewable electricity.
Portfolio · Local Line
May 25, 2026
Local Line launches new website: direct-from-farm commerce, built for scale.
Local Line announced a full website relaunch repositioning the company around “direct-from-farm commerce, built for scale” — software for both suppliers and wholesale buyers.
Portfolio · Nitricity
Mar 2026
Nitricity named to THRIVE Top 50 AgTech.
SVG Ventures' 2026 THRIVE Top 50 AgTech list recognizes Nitricity's electrified organic fertilizer platform as one of the year's most consequential agrifoodtech companies.
Portfolio · IMIO
Mar 2026
Farmers using microbes to boost yields and profits.
Interview with Charles Smith at the 2026 iFAB Biomanufacturing Summit: farmers running Re-Gen for residue management are reporting up to 20 bu/acre yield bumps on corn and ~5 bu/acre on soybeans.
Portfolio · Nitricity
Jan 2026
Cleantech Group Global 100 — 2026 class.
Nitricity was included on the Cleantech Group 2026 Global 100 list, alongside the year's most promising cleantech companies worldwide.
Portfolio · Local Line
Dec 23, 2025
Year in review: 2025 product highlights.
A recap of Local Line's 2025 product launches — the “Discover” supplier/buyer networking tool, Product Variants, enhanced barcode scanning, and Square POS sync — all shipped as the platform crossed 10,000+ active farmers across 14 countries.
Portfolio · Local Line
Dec 10, 2025
Farms using Local Line grew their sales 33% in 2025.
Local Line's annual farm-sales report found platform farms grew sales 33% year-over-year in 2025 — on top of 23% growth in 2024 — driven by a 31% jump in average order value and strong adoption of subscriptions and multi-vendor selling.
Portfolio · Local Line
Nov 20, 2025
Cole Jones profile: platform reaches $100B GMV ambition.
Wilfrid Laurier profiles founder/CEO Cole Jones, noting the recent Canadian Food Innovation Network Foodtech Frontier award, that average platform farmers grow sales 23%/year, and that Chipotle uses Local Line to manage sourcing of 47M+ pounds of local produce.
Portfolio · Local Line
Nov 7, 2025
“Local Line enhances connection between farmers.”
Retail Insider Canada profiles Cole Jones and Local Line's growth to 10,000+ active farmers across 14 countries — and the company's stated ambition of reaching $100B in annual gross merchandise volume.
Portfolio · Local Line
Oct 3, 2025
Canadian Food Innovation Network Foodtech Frontier award.
CTV News Kitchener covers Local Line's Foodtech Frontier award win, and reports that Local Line customers have eliminated 940 million food miles over two years through supply-chain efficiencies.
Portfolio · Edacious
Sep 10, 2025
Edacious & Regenerative Organic Alliance launch a 4-year nutrient-density study.
Four-year partnership to test the nutritional makeup of 200+ Regenerative Organic Certified foods vs. conventional, organic, and non-organic regenerative counterparts — turning the ROC label into measurable, lab-verified nutritional evidence.
Portfolio · Nitricity
Sep 10, 2025
Nitricity raises $50M Series B to go global.
$50M Series B co-led by World Fund and Khosla Ventures, with Chipotle's Cultivate Next, King Philanthropies, and others participating. Funds will scale U.S./Europe expansion and grow headcount to ~38 people.
Portfolio · Nitricity
Sep 2025
Delhi plant on track for Q1 2026; sold out through 2028.
AgFunderNews reports the Delhi, CA plant is set to be operational Q1 2026 at 8,500-ton capacity, sold out through 2028, and that Nitricity is now fielding demand from Oregon, Washington, Arizona, and Colorado, plus starting European product registration.
Case study · Nitricity
Sep 2025
How Nitricity is reinventing the fertilizer supply chain.
Elemental Excelerator details how Nitricity's process cuts production carbon intensity 43% and increases crop yield 23% versus conventional fertilizer — and how Elemental's $2M catalyzed $3.6M (44%) of the Delhi plant's capital stack.
Case study · IMIO
2025 season
Managing corn-on-corn residue in Minnesota.
A 5th-generation Minnesota farmer applied Re-Gen across 2,000 acres in spring and fall 2025, reporting faster residue breakdown, visible microbial activity, and darker, more workable soil ahead of the 2026 season.
Portfolio · IMIO
Jul 2025
Common sense over complexity.
IMIO's perspective on simplifying biological product adoption for row-crop growers — how reliability and ease of use, not molecular novelty, are the barriers to biologicals scaling on real farms.
Portfolio · Local Line
Jun 30, 2025
The platform behind Chipotle's 47M lbs of local produce.
Local Line recaps the Chipotle Cultivate Next partnership — including 100 farm grants issued in 2024 near new restaurant openings, and plans to run the grant program again in 2025.
Portfolio · IMIO
Jun 2025
Solving the reliability problem in biologicals.
A company perspective on IMIO's freeze-dried microbial formulation approach — designed to overcome the consistency and shelf-stability issues that have plagued biological ag products for a decade.
Portfolio · Edacious
Apr 2025
First-of-its-kind beef nutrient-density study: grass-fed shows >100% more omega-3s.
Collaboration with Bionutrient Food Association and Utah State (Dr. Stephan van Vliet) used advanced metabolomics on beef from farms across the U.S. Edacious powered the data platform — making nutrient complexity actionable for producers, brands, and policymakers.
Portfolio · Nitricity
Mar 26, 2025
Nitricity wins CoStar Impact Award for Fresno lease of the year.
Nitricity's lease of a 26,000 sq ft former squash-processing facility in Merced County took home the 2025 CoStar Impact Award for Fresno's Lease of the Year — a real-estate signal on where next-gen U.S. fertilizer manufacturing lands.
Portfolio · Nitricity
Mar 4, 2025
$10M in fresh funding for first-of-a-kind organic fertilizer plant.
$10M in project funding from Elemental Impact and Trellis Climate to build a 100x-capacity commercial fertilizer facility in Delhi, CA — creating ~20 jobs, with output already sold out through 2028.
Case study · IMIO
2025 trials
Grand Farm selects Re-Gen for 2025 field trials.
North Dakota's Grand Farm ag-innovation hub selected IMIO's Re-Gen for its 2025 field trial program — testing corn residue breakdown and soybean yield/phosphorus uptake under independent supervision.
Portfolio · Edacious
Feb 7, 2025
Edacious raises $8.1M seed to break the cycle of food commoditization.
Led by Patagonia’s Tin Shed Ventures, with Nest Family Office, Trailhead Capital, Grantham’s Neglected Climate Opportunities, iSelect Capital, and others. High-throughput nutrient testing at ~1/10th the cost of traditional labs — $200/sample vs. $2,500-3,500 — plus benchmarking software for producers.
Case study · IMIO
Multi-year
Nea Tocht Farm: 17% corn yield lift on Re-Gen.
Growers at Nea Tocht Farm saw a 17% corn yield increase from improved nutrient uptake efficiency after applying Re-Gen on corn fodder and cover-crop residuals — part of IMIO's evolving multi-year case-study base.
Case study · Local Line
Ongoing
Region Roots food hub wins $6M USDA Local Food for Schools grant.
A 90% grant-funded food hub used Local Line's reporting and analytics stack to win a $6M USDA Local Food for Schools grant for Indiana — connecting Indiana farms to institutional buyers at real scale.
Case study · Local Line
Ongoing
The Commons Makers Co-op: 60+ Northern Ontario producers, +50% food sales.
60+ Northern Ontario producers consolidated onto one storefront using Local Line's food hub software, growing food sales 50%+ — a template for how small-scale producers aggregate demand without giving up brand or margin.