Hgen, a company that makes clean hydrogen to decarbonize heavy industry, today announced the close of a $5M seed financing round. Seven Seven Six led the fundraising effort, which also included the Founders Fund and Fontinalis Partners.
Hgen will use this funding to accelerate the commercial deployment of its technology at customer sites.
Nearly 100 million metric tons of fossil-fuel-derived hydrogen are produced annually for industrial and chemical processes. Founded in 2021, Hgen seeks to decarbonize this $100B+ market by producing clean hydrogen from water and electricity via its alkaline electrolyzers — a class of electrolyzer technology with the lowest cost floor and, therefore, best positioned to achieve clean hydrogen’s cost targets.
Hgen has developed an alkaline electrolyzer with a 20x higher volumetric power density compared to conventional alkaline electrolyzers, resulting in a 20x smaller system that can produce the same amount of hydrogen. This high power density is unlocked by Hgen’s hydrogen-generating cells, which are 9% more efficient and 6x thinner than standard alkaline cells. This translates to a more compact and lower-cost electrolyzer.
“Electrolyzer installations today look like custom petrochemical construction projects —bespoke and costly. Our pre-assembled modules include the balance of plant, avoiding the custom design and on-site construction that balloons the cost of hydrogen projects today,” says Hgen’s CEO, Molly Yang.
With early support from Breakthrough Energy Fellows, Hgen scaled its technology from a benchtop prototype to an industrial-scale demonstration running at its Hawthorne facility.
The company is now focused on deploying its technology at customer sites.
Seven Seven Six founder and general partner Alexis Ohanian says, “Hgen assembled an incredible strike team from SpaceX and Tesla, who’ve previously developed complex technologies better than incumbents on rapid time scales and are now making breakthroughs in alkaline electrolysis.”
“Hgen’s commercial traction validates the superior performance of their technology, and we’re excited to support them on this journey,” says Seven Seven Six founding partner Katelin Holloway.
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