On Wednesday, hydrogen energy technology startup Thiozen, a company founded at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and incubated at energy non-profit North Shore InnoVentures, announced that it has successfully raised $3 million in seed-stage venture capital. The round was led by Eni Next, the venture capital arm of Italian energy supermajor Eni S.p.A., along with Good Growth Capital and Mount Wilson Ventures.
Founded in 2020, Thiozen’s novel addition to the fast-growing hydrogen energy tech sector is the ability to produce hydrogen from high-volume industrial waste streams and water, thus avoiding the significant carbon footprint of traditional hydrogen production.
Thiozen will use the seed round funds to scale its technology to a commercial demonstration. If successful, the company’s technology will accelerate the energy transition by allowing large energy customers to turn a waste stream into valuable low emission hydrogen gas.
A pragmatic response
“Thiozen is a pragmatic response to greenhouse gas emissions for the energy industry, a sector that faces perhaps the most difficulty in their path to decarbonization,” Thiozen CEO Ryan Gillis said in a comment on the capital round. “Commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are just words until the technology that allows these reductions is brought to market. We are excited to be working with a high caliber group of investors that shares our vision of a low carbon world.”
“We are very excited to partner with Thiozen, a company founded by high caliber scientists to develop and commercialize a promising technology to produce hydrogen from a waste stream with multiple applications along the entire energy supply chain,” said Eni Next CEO Gabriele Franceschini. “This investment reaffirms our commitment to support innovative solutions for clean hydrogen production.”
