London, UK – Ki Hydrogen has closed a $1.1 million pre-seed round to scale up their ground-breaking technology to produce green hydrogen and green chemicals from waste. Our mission is to mitigate 100 million tonnes of CO2e per year at scale by displacing petrochemicals with green chemicals at cost parity, and we’ll start with green hydrogen.

The world already produces 95 million tonnes of hydrogen every year, but over 99% is still derived from fossil fuels in an incredibly carbon-intensive process that directly contributes over 900 million tonnes of CO2e. That is comparable to emissions from the entire aviation industry. Current technologies to produce green hydrogen are too energy-intensive, costing three times more than fossil fuel-derived hydrogen.

Ki Hydrogen solves the energy problem by electrolysing waste biomass to produce green hydrogen. This innovative technology uses up to 75% less energy while also producing valuable chemical commodities to be sold as co-products. This unlocks green hydrogen at $2/kg, without relying on subsidies or a dramatic fall in electricity prices.

“We’re excited to support Ki Hydrogen in developing their novel biomass electrolysis technology as a scalable solution that can be cost competitive with steam methane reforming” says Abhi Desai, Partner at Desai Ventures. “Along with reducing the energy needed per unit of green Hydrogen, the use of waste feedstock and chemical byproducts can also contribute to decarbonizing other hard to abate sectors”.

The investment round was co-led by Desai Ventures and SFC Capital, with participation by HICO Investment Group, G-Force, and Carbon13. 

Adam Beveridge, Investment Associate at SFC Capital, explains, “GreenTech has become a key focus for us at SFC, so we’re excited to back Ki Hydrogen’s breakthrough in green hydrogen production. The team’s commitment and clear vision have truly impressed us at SFC, and we’re keen to see the successes they will achieve.”

Louis Warner, General Partner at G-Force, adds, “we’re investing in outstanding talent, solving big problems, with unique technology or science. Our investment in Ki Hydrogen meets all of these criteria; Koji, Michael and Carl’s novel biomass electrolysis solution creates a realistic path to cost effective green hydrogen production, bringing sorely needed innovation to this already $170bn market.”

Ki Hydrogen formed a little less than a year ago in Carbon13, the venture builder for the climate emergency, where the three co-founders met with a passion to tackle the biggest problems in climate:

• Michael Stanton, PhD (CTO) – Strong scientific background, with Ki Hydrogen’s technology building on post-doctoral research experience at the University of Cambridge.
• Koji Muto, MBA (CEO) – Industrial experience having developed the UK’s largest hydrogen project worth $800 million as a senior engineer at ExxonMobil.
• Carl Banbury, PhD (COO) – Operational expert with over 10 years of startup experience commercialising emerging technologies into multi-million revenue products.