Australian electrolyser start-up gets huge global backing in country’s biggest ever clean tech fund raising

Australian hydrogen start-up Hysata has won huge backing from a series of global energy and funds management giants in and over-subscribed investment round to support its promised “low cost” electrolyser technology.

The company announced on Thursday that a Series B funding round, led by oil major bp and Hong Kong based Templewater was oversubscribed and attracted $A172 million, and ranks as the largest clean tech Series B raising in Australia’s history.

Hysata last August opened its new headquarters and “giga-factory” in its home base of Wollongong, and says it has developed the world’s most efficient electrolyser technology.

It says that it needs only 41.5 kilowatt hours for every kilo of green hydrogen with its alkaline electrolysers, which translates to a 95 per cent efficiency and is 20 per cent – or a country mile in technology terms – ahead of incumbent technologies.

The success of the fund raising is particularly impressive given that it comes as some of the more “established” electrolyser companies such as Plug Power and Bloom Energy have been struggling because of questions about the competitiveness of their technologies.

“This funding round, backed by a world class syndicate of investors, demonstrates the game changing impact Hysata is having on the green hydrogen landscape,” Hysata CEO Paul Barrett said in a statement.

“It will strengthen our team and enhance our capabilities, as we propel towards widespread commercial availability.”

Hysata was spun out of the University of Wollongong and is targeting hard to abate industries such as steel, chemicals and heavy transport.

The fund raising, which follows a $20 million commitment from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency announced last year, was supported by existing investors IP Group, Virescent Ventures on behalf of Clean Energy Finance Corporation, Hostplus, Vestas Ventures and BlueScopeX, from the steel giant down the road.

Major new investors included South Korea industrial giant Posco, IMM Investment Hong Kong, Shinhan Financial Group, Twin Towers Ventures, the Oman Investment Authority’s VC arm IDO, and TelstraSuper.

Hysata will use the funding to expand production capacity at its iconic beachside manufacturing facility in Wollongong, New South Wales and further develop its technology as it focuses on reaching gigawatt scale manufacturing. 

Gareth Burns, the vice president of bp Ventures, said Hysata is the first advanced alkaline electrolyser technology that the company has invested in.

“It could provide optionality for our hydrogen business as bp aims to become a global leader in low carbon hydrogen production,” he said in a statement. “Hysata’s technology could help save energy and reduce production costs, addressing two challenges of the green hydrogen market.

bp has a number of regional hydrogen energy hubs it is developing, including in Australia, such as H2 Kwinana and the Australian Renewable Energy Hub (AREH).

Alfred Wong, a partner at Templewater, said the company is attracted to the high efficiency of Hysata’s electrolyser technology.

Hysata says it currently has 75 staff and aims to grow this number to more than 200 employees over the next couple of years. It says it is “moving rapidly” towards manufacturing at the multi-gigawatt scale.