On Wednesday, green hydrogen producer Electric Hydrogen announced that it has received a $24 million Series A capital round led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures, the deep decarbonization-focused VC fund founded in 2016 by Bill Gates, along with Prelude Ventures and Capricorn’s Technology Impact Fund. Electric Hydrogen said it will use the funds for continued product development as it expands its operations in the Boston and San Francisco Bay Areas.
Founded by industry veterans from First Solar and Tesla, Electric Hydrogen aims to develop hydrogen gas at industrial scale, using low-cost renewable electricity, to aid in the decarbonization of many polluting industrial sectors.
“With their strong track record of success in scaling new clean energy technologies, Electric Hydrogen has what it takes to make good on the promise of hydrogen as a clean and economical building block for decarbonizing industry,” said Carmichael Roberts of Breakthrough Energy Ventures. “We’re proud to have supported Electric Hydrogen in this vital mission from its inception, and now through its Series A financing.”
Hydrogen from renewable electricity is widely seen as a very promising and immediate path to tackling “hard to decarb” industrial sectors like fertilizers, chemicals, steel, and even bulk energy storage and transport. Electric Hydrogen says that because of its unique suitability for these applications, the global market for clean hydrogen could grow dramatically in coming years, possibly even rivaling the market for natural gas if it can be produced at a compelling price.
“We see an exciting opportunity to reinvent electrolysis to make green hydrogen at fossil-parity prices within this decade,” said CEO Raffi Garabedian. “The keys will be to directly harness very low-cost intermittent renewable energy through radically cost-effective large-scale equipment. We’re honored to be backed by visionary climate-tech investors, and together with the engineers and scientists on our team, we’re hard at work to enable a clean and abundant future.”
“In infrastructure and industry, cost drives decisions,” said Electric Hydrogen CFO Derek Warnick. “That’s why we are laser-focused on delivering green hydrogen at a cost that’s competitive with fossil fuels. When doing the right thing is actually the lowest cost option, the market will shift very quickly.”
“Electrification will play a huge role in reducing carbon emissions, but over a third of emissions come from industrial sectors that are hard to directly electrify,” said EVP of Engineering Dorian West. “Low-cost fossil-free hydrogen provides a compelling pathway to decarbonize these dirty industries, which operate at massive scales.”
The Electric Hydrogen investment adds to a portfolio of $2 billion in climate-driven investments for Breakthrough Energy Ventures in the sub-sectors of agriculture, buildings, electricity, manufacturing, and transportation. The fund’s strategy links government-funded research and patient, risk-tolerant capital to bring transformative clean energy innovations to market as quickly as possible.
Founded in 2013, co-investor Prelude Ventures is a Bay Area venture capital fund that also invests through a climate lens in subsectors including advanced energy, food & agriculture, transportation and logistics, advanced materials and manufacturing, and advanced computing.
Fellow investor Capricorn, which invested through its Technology Impact Fund, invests thematically in engineering-based solutions based on long-term global trends technology, transportation, power, storage, efficiency, semiconductors, aerospace, sensors, earth data, and analytics. The fund was an early investor in Tesla, Joby Aviation, SpaceX, QuantumScape, and Redwood Materials.
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