A Gram-negative, chemo-organotrophic, non-motile, non-spore-forming, rod-shaped bacterium (designated strain Ko04(T)) was isolated from anaerobic granules in an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket reactor, and was investigated using a polyphasic taxonomic approach. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain Ko04(T) belongs to the order Rhizobiales in the Alphaproteobacteria. Comparative 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis showed that strain Ko04(T) was most closely related to Kaistia adipata (97.5 %) and that sequence similarities with other species of Rhizobiales with validly published names were less than 92.5 %. The predominant ubiquinone was Q-10 and the major fatty acids were C(18 : 1)omega7c/omega9t/omega12t, C(19 : 0 )cyclo omega8c and C(18 : 0). The G+C content of the genomic DNA of strain Ko04(T) was 67.8 mol%. The level of DNA-DNA relatedness with K. adipata Chj404(T) was 15 %. The results of the genotypic analyses in combination with chemotaxonomic and physiological data demonstrated that strain Ko04(T) represents a novel species within the genus Kaistia, for which the name Kaistia granuli sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is Ko04(T) (=KCTC 12575(T)=LMG 23410(T)).