Green hydrogen start-up Hysata pockets record $172m in Series B funding
A three-year-old start-up in Wollongong has attracted global giants to its groundbreaking technology, securing Australia’s largest clean-tech funding round in history.
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Wollongong hydrogen company Hysata has secured record backing from a series of global energy giants in an investment round promising to lower the cost of renewable energy.
Hysata announced on Thursday that a funding round, led by oil major BP Ventures and Hong Kong’s Templewater, has attracted a $172m investment – ranking it as the largest cap raising by a clean-tech company in Australian history.
The massive Series B funding injection was oversubscribed by strategic and financial investors from around the world, including Oman’s Investment Authority IDO, POSCO Holdings, and IMM investment Hong Kong.
The announcement comes less than a year after the start-up received around $24m in grant funding from the federal and Queensland state governments to help the company with projects in Rockhampton, Queensland.
Green hydrogen has been a critical source of fuel for decarbonising heavy industry metals, with electrolysers being used as the key ingredient to produce green hydrogen at large scale.
Hysata will use the funding to expand its production capacity at its manufacturing facility in Wollongong, NSW, and aim to bring down the cost of green hydrogen.
The company’s CEO Paul Barrett said they would be producing “the world’s most efficient, simple, and reliable electrolysers”.
“Electrolysers are the machines that split water into hydrogen and oxygen. Our manufacturing approach is to do that in a very energy-efficient way,” Mr Barrett said.
“Our mission at Hysata is to accelerate the deep decarbonisation of hard-to-abate sectors such as steel, chemical manufacture, and heavy transport, by delivering the world’s most efficient, simple, and reliable electrolysers,” he said.
Mr Barrett said the new funding would help slash the amount of energy required to break up the water particles by 20 per cent.
The company was formed in June 2021 with a $5m funding led by IP Group Australia.
The company then went on to raise $42.5m during the Series A funding in June 2022.
BP Ventures vice-president Gareth Burns said it was the first time BP had invested in electrolyser technology.
“This is the first advanced alkaline electrolyser technology that BP Ventures has invested in. It could provide optionality for our hydrogen business as BP aims to become a global leader in low carbon hydrogen production,” Mr Burns said.
“Hysata’s technology could help save energy and reduce production costs, addressing two challenges of the green hydrogen market.”
The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) program has also supported Hysata from its early days, providing grants totalling nearly $30m to help the company build and develop its technology at a commercial scale.
Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen said renewable hydrogen was a vital part in Australia’s future.
“This technology can help drive down the cost of hydrogen production and decarbonise energy-intensive sectors like steel, fertiliser and shipping,” Mr Bowen said.
“Manufacturing electrolysers in Australia is a huge opportunity to shore up essential supply chains and leverage our innovation to capture more of the global renewable energy technology chain.”
Originally published as Green hydrogen start-up Hysata pockets record $172m in Series B funding
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