Hydrogen tech firm Hystar completes USD 26m Series B funding

Norwegian hydrogen technology company Hystar AS on Wednesday said it has closed a USD-26-million (EUR 24.2m) Series B funding round to help it move to commercial production with an automated gigawatt-scale plant by 2025.

The funding was co-led by AP Ventures and Mitsubishi Corp (TYO:8058). Finindus, Nippon Steel Trading, Hillhouse Investment and Trustbridge Partners, as well as existing investors SINTEF Ventures and Firda, also took part in the round.

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Hystar, a spin-off of European independent research organisation SINTEF, will also use the funds to support its expansion in new markets. The company says its polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) electrolysers are the world’s most efficient and could be a game-changer for decarbonising hard-to-abate sectors, such as steel, ammonia and heavy transport. Hystar’s design uses a 90% thinner membrane than conventional electrolysers and can produce up to 150% more green hydrogen, the Oslo-based start-up explains.

Hystar chief executive Fredrik Mowill expects the high-quality industrial and financial investors in the Series B funding round to contribute to accelerating the company’s growth. “We look forward to working with our new shareholders to explore joint opportunities to deploy green hydrogen projects at scale,” the CEO said.

Hystar completed a NOK 50 million (USD 5m/EUR 4.7m) fundraising led by AP Ventures, alongside SINTEF Ventures and Firda, in June 2021.

As announced in September 2022, the clean ammonia business of Norwegian crop nutrition company Yara International ASA and Equinor ASA are participating in a pilot Hystar project that will see the first in-field test of the company’s 1-MW PEM electrolyser.

(USD 1 = EUR 0.933)
(NOK 1 = USD 0.100/EUR 0.094)