Ki 13 Raises $5M to Turn Biomass into Affordable Green Hydrogen and Synthetic Fuels

Ki13 has now raised a $5 million seed round to build its first industrial pilot plant that converts lignocellulosic biomass into green hydrogen and biogenic CO₂.  

The round was led by HICO, with participation from Burgest, Triple Impact Ventures, GiTV, and Desai Ventures, alongside non-dilutive match funding from Innovate UK. 

CEO Koji Muto and CTO Michael Stanton started Ki 13 on the Carbon13 Venture Builder (along with Carl Banbury who has exited this summer) and received investment from Carbon13 SEIS Fund IV. What started as an idea in a Cambridge college has now evolved into a company scaling towards a commercial demonstration plant with the potential to disrupt the $7 trillion fossil fuel industry. 

High energy requirements per kilogram of hydrogen produced have stymied the green hydrogen industry. The water electrolysis technology to produce this low carbon fuel is well developed, but the economics remain a problem because the feedstocks can’t compete on costs with fossil fuels. Water electrolysis is just too energy intensive and too expensive. 

Ki 13 tackle this cost problem by using electrolysis in residual biomass – 5 billion tonnes of which are generated every year. Turning this existing waste into green hydrogen and biogenic CO₂ represents a $2 trillion opportunity. 

And their technology trials so far have demonstrated an energy cost of 25 kWh of electricity per kilogram of hydrogen and 300 kWh per tonne of CO₂. By comparison, Ki 13 says water electrolysis typically requires around 50 kWh per kilogram of hydrogen. 

Ki 13’s focus now is to build a commercial demonstration plant that will deliver on more than $15 million of initial annual off-take demand. This will provide affordable synthetic fuels such as e-SAF (sustainable aviation fuel), e-methanol and e-methane to industry. 

Do you have SEIS allocation for this tax year 2026/2027? 

Carbon13’s SEIS Fund X is open now for investment and closing in a few weeks. Ki 13 is one of many high momentum climate investments in our portfolio. If you’re interested in backing high potential startups which can decarbonise industry at scale, then explore our fund here.