EUR 36 million in series D for Electrochaea
Power-to-gas company Electrochaea announced today a €14.9 million equity investment from the European Innovation Council (EIC) Fund. This investment completes the €36 million Series D round, led by the energy technology company Baker Hughes and existing partners MVP, Storengy (an ENGIE subsidiary), btov, KfW, Energie 360°, Caliza, and Focus First, which was announced last year. The purpose of this investment round is to accelerate the scale up and commercialization of Electrochaea’s technology that produces a replacement for fossil natural gas while storing renewable energy and reusing CO2.
The equity funds permit Electrochaea to catalyze the construction of a commercial European project, through direct investment of funds, and to realize the engineering work completed under the €2.5 million award that Electrochaea received in August 2020 from the “EIC Accelerator” program, a part of the EU research and innovation program “Horizon 2020”. EIC equity investments are made to scale-up game-changing innovative technologies that promote Europe’s goal to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Electrochaea’s power-to-gas biomethanation technology produces grid-quality renewable methane using CO2 and renewable hydrogen. Renewable methane can replace any use of fossil natural gas, thereby significantly reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, utilizing investment in existing gas distribution and storage infrastructure, and contributing to the transition to a clean energy economy.
“Equity support from the EIC Fund will have a significant impact on Electrochaea’s ability to deliver renewable gas to customers throughout Europe and the world,” said Mich Hein, CEO of Electrochaea. “Technologies that can deliver on net-zero greenhouse emission goals need to be scaled up and brought to the market without delay. Electrochaea´s biomethanation technology, which has been proven in two demonstration plants, one in Denmark and one in Switzerland, is an ideal solution to replace fossil gas with fully renewable gas and to participate in the energy transition.”
“Electrochaea is a great example of how the EIC Fund is supporting the climate tech innovators to bring their technologies to the market and help achieving the Green dealobjectives,” added Martin Bruncko, member of the EIC Fund Investment Committee. “This equity financing will support Electrochaea to successfully produce at industrial scale renewable methane that replaces natural gas and can be stored and transported in the existing gas grid.”