Global investors are supporting Australian company Hysata's hydrogen electrolyser technology as the organisation closes its oversubscribed Series A funding round of AUD $42.5 million.
Virescent Ventures leads the funding round on behalf of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) (Aus), with participation from Kiko Ventures (UK), IP Group Australia, Vestas Ventures (Denmark), Hostplus (Aus) and BlueScope (via its ventures arm BlueScopeX) (Aus).
Hysata says assembling such a high-profile and high-impact list of investors underlines the significance of the transformation it is bringing to the green hydrogen industry.
The Hysata electrolyser operates at 95% system efficiency (41.5 kWh/kg), delivering a giant leap in performance and cost over incumbent technologies, which typically operate at 75% or less.
It says this high efficiency, coupled with the simple approach to mass manufacturing and low supply chain risk puts the company on a path to delivering the world's lowest cost green hydrogen.
Funding from the Series A round will be used to grow the Hysata team and develop a pilot manufacturing facility.
Hysata CEO Paul Barrett says the mission is to redefine the economics of green hydrogen production through the company's innovative proprietary electrolyser technology.
"The support of this international syndicate of clean energy practitioners and investors validates our core technology and our approach to scaling and mass manufacture," he says.
"Green hydrogen is a vital energy vector on the world's path to net zero, critical to decarbonising the hard-to-abate, yet vital, sectors of our economy such as steelmaking, heavy transport, and the chemical industry. The extensive end use cases for green hydrogen translate to a greater than trillion-dollar market opportunity."
Barrett says over the last 12 to 18 months Hysata has been interacting with dozens of major customers globally.
"The impact our efficiency and system simplicity delivers to customers' project economics truly moves the needle. We look forward to continuing to work with our shareholders and customers to bring this much needed technology to market as soon as possible," he says.
The CEFC invested $10 million into the Series A funding round, building on its initial $750,000 investment in the early commercial development of Hysata's research. CEFC CEO Ian Learmonth says that backing a company like Hysata and its cutting-edge electrolyser technology is vital in helping to grow Australia's clean technology ecosystem.
"The CEFC is proud to continue our support for Hysata, which is set to be a major player in the global electrolyser industry. Green hydrogen will be essential to addressing the hardest to abate sources of emissions, and we're excited to see Australian ingenuity providing the technology solutions that will help this industry reach scale," he says.
"The CEFC has a strong focus on hydrogen related investments through both our Innovation and Advancing Hydrogen Funds and we are delighted to see Hysata continue to advance hydrogen to help meet future energy needs and reduce emissions in more sectors of the Australian economy."
Vestas Ventures head Todd O'Neill says the company foresees great potential in combining wind power with electrolysers for green hydrogen production.
"We are delighted to have been invited to invest in Hysata. Nurturing disruptive renewable technologies is central to our investment strategy and we look forward to following Hysata's success over the coming years," he says.
BlueScopeX's general partner, Michael Quinn, agreed that Hysata's technology could play a significant role in developing commercially viable hydrogen production.
"BlueScopeX is pleased to be investing in Australian technologies coming out of our local communities, with Hysata being born in the Illawarra. Our industry requires smart, affordable technologies like Hysata's to help progress the broader goal of decarbonisation, and we are excited to be supporting them on their path to commercialisation," he says.