Electrolyser manufacturer Stargate Hydrogen has closed its Series A funding round, raising €11m in equity investments from strategic customers and financial investors.
Stargate said the investment fuels its mission to scale up precious metal-free electrolysers, delivering high-efficiency hydrogen production at a lower cost.
The financing round includes strategic customers with backgrounds in renewable energy and utilities such as Giga and UG Investments, accompanied by SmartCap Green Fund, a state-backed venture capital fund investing in green tech companies with global ambitions.
Stargate chief executive Marko Virkebau said : “We are thrilled to have SmartCap and Giga joining our ownership structure, along with additional investment from UGI.
“To have strategic customers investing into the company is the strongest testament to the progress we made.
“This funding gives us firepower to execute our roadmap, enhance our production capabilities, and provide our customers with electrolysis technology that allows significant cost-down on the price of green hydrogen.
“Our view is that only companies with unique, proprietary technology will survive through the current green hydrogen market cycle.”
SmartCap chief executive Sille Pettai said: “We decided to invest in Stargate Hydrogen due to their highly innovative approach to green hydrogen production, accompanied by an impressive list of customers and strong unit economics.
“Funding the scale of manufacturing of innovative green technologies is central to the green transition and our strategic objectives, as it enables wider adoption of sustainable energy solutions.”
Affordable green hydrogen is key to decoupling the production of chemicals and commodities such as steel from CO2 emissions, Stargate said.
The Estonian-based company is developing production equipment that it says will bring down the cost of green hydrogen by operating at higher efficiency compared to the existing solutions.
Instead of precious metals, Stargate is using ceramic-based catalyst material.
Stargate has developed a proprietary stack technology, focused on increasing the reliability of hydrogen production across the project lifecycle and minimising the degradation of the equipment.
The performance of Stargate stacks has been validated by ZSW in Stuttgart, a test centre of electrolysis equipment in Europe.
Recently, Stargate was selected by Nordic utility company Fortum as the supplier for its alkaline electrolysis plant in Loviisa, Finland.