German electrolyzer manufacturer Sunfire has secured €109 million ($125 million) of new funding in its Series D round from a consortium of investors led by Lightrock, and equity company backed by the Princely House of Liechtenstein and its asset management group LGT, and Luxembourg-based Planet First Partners.
Sunfire co-founder and CEO Nils Aldag said the investment “marked the largest equity raise of a green-hydrogen-focused private company anywhere to date.”
The company plans to use capital to build the first in a series of production gigafactories and bring its advanced pressurized alkaline solid oxide (SOEC) electrolysis technologies to industrial scale, creating major electrolysis capacity for its customers.
“Our electrolysis technologies are critical for increasing green hydrogen supply that is needed to decarbonize industrial companies at significant scale,” Aldag added. “Europe is emerging as a global leader in the hydrogen sector, and Sunfire plans to be a frontrunner by providing world-class technology at scale.”
Sunfire recently announced plans to scale its alkaline electrolysis business and build a large-scale electrolyzer production site in Germany with an annual manufacturing capacity of 500 MW by 2023, with a further extension to gigawatt-scale already in the planning.
Describing its SOEC electrolyzers as “game-changing,” Sunfire predicts the technology will change the scale of hydrogen production through both greater efficiency and its unique capability of producing syngas. A mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, syngas can be converted into everything that is currently produced from crude oil, such as jet fuel, diesel or waxes, but without the harmful emissions that come from using fossil fuel feedstocks.
“Sunfire’s unique technologies will drive down costs for green hydrogen production, helping to establish a competitive hydrogen value chain and further increasing the range of industries that can economically decarbonize,”said Lightrock partner Kevin Bone. “The many net-zero targets set by businesses and governments cannot be met without a dramatic scaling in green hydrogen production and adoption, which Sunfire will play an integral part in facilitating.”
Frédéric de Mévius, managing partner of Planet First Partners, added: “Green hydrogen has tremendous potential to abate at least ten percent of global carbon emissions. Sunfire’s breakthrough electrolysis technologies, the scale-up of manufacturing capacities and the overall dynamism its management team is bringing to the market will benefit the ramp-up and use of green hydrogen across industrial and transport applications.”
Also joining the latest investment round were New York City-based Carbon Direct Capital Management and London-based HydrogenOne Capital as well as Sunfire's existing shareholders.
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