Subjects: FNC, VEN
Verdagy secures Series B funding led by Temasek and Shell Ventures
Company continues commercialization of innovative electrolyzer technology, providing green hydrogen at industrial scale to drive decarbonization of heavy industry
MOSS LANDING, Calif., Aug. 8, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Verdagy, a pioneer in scaling electrolyzer technologies for industrial markets, today announced the closing of a $73-million Series B funding round. Temasek and Shell Ventures co-led the Series B round, with participation from new global investors Bidra Innovation Ventures, BlueScope, Galp, Samsung Venture Investment, Toppan Ventures, Tupras Ventures, Yara Growth Ventures and Zeon Ventures.
The new funding will enable Verdagy to accelerate the launch and commercialization of its eDynamic® 20 megawatt (MW) electrolyzer module, which will serve as a fundamental unit to future systems at the 200MW scale and beyond. Following initial commercial unit deployments with existing partners, Verdagy will expand deployment of its novel eDynamic electrolyzer technology to additional customers in heavy industries such as oil and gas, ammonia, steel and e-fuels to support global industrial decarbonization.
"Verdagy is rising to the challenge to accelerate the green hydrogen economy and decarbonize hard-to-abate sectors such as steel and ammonia production," said Vikas Gupta, Partner at Shell Ventures. "The management team has a successful track record in scaling climate technologies from megawatts to gigawatts and they are committed to achieving the same at Verdagy."
Green hydrogen is defined as splitting water using renewable energy, like solar and wind. Verdagy's technology enables deep decarbonization of heavy industries by incorporating green hydrogen at a very large scale. Their technology drives down the investment with the low operating cost of their eDynamic 20MW electrolyzers coupled with flexible operating capabilities and single-element architecture SmartCells, allowing the large (3m2) cells to operate at higher current densities. This translates directly into more hydrogen production per cell with real-time performance monitoring and predictive maintenance built in.
The team behind this next generation of green hydrogen production is led by industry veterans in the hydrogen, solar and battery sectors. Verdagy CEO Marty Neese brings decades of executive experience across companies like SunPower and Ballard; COO Peter Cousins draws on his past work scaling Tesla's gigafactories; and Founder, Board Member Dr. Ryan Gilliam is a serial entrepreneur, and founder of industrial decarbonization
companies Fortera, and Chemetry. With this strong team, Verdagy has assembled a wealth of knowledge on producing hydrogen at-scale and delivering winning solutions to customers with urgent decarbonization needs.
"By leveraging our patented large electrochemical cells, using membranes and enabling high current density operations and a wide dynamic range, Verdagy has dramatically lowered the CAPEX of an electrolyzer," said Neese. "We have shown that our core technology works and Verdagy is ready to scale globally."
"Yara is taking the lead on driving the use of electrolyzers in the ammonia and fertilizer industry. We see a strong need for cost competitive, clean hydrogen to be able to decarbonize and drive the movement towards a more environmentally friendly industry" says Stian Nygaard, Investment Director in Yara Growth Ventures. "Electrolyzers are a technology requiring a lot of innovation and product development. We are really impressed by how Verdagy is taking on this challenge and want to take part in this adventure. The world needs them."
"Verdagy's potential to demonstrate high-current density over a wide dynamic range across large-area cells led us to incubate and write the first check into the company in early 2020," said Rajesh Swaminathan, Partner Khosla Ventures. "Since then, the team has made significant progress in validating key performance and cost targets, getting them closer to building out a green hydrogen economy."
"Verdagy is at an inflection point - going from proven technology to commercialization stage," said Amar Singh, Head of Group, Bidra Innovation Ventures. "We believe Verdagy can further compound Morocco's unique advantages, such as low cost solar and wind energy, captive demand and proximity to customers in Europe."
"We are more than doubling down in this round on Verdagy, we are witnessing how they have gone from a valuable technology to a defensible business," said Anil Achyuta, Managing Director at TDK Ventures.
About Verdagy
Verdagy is innovating water electrolysis technology for the large-scale production of green hydrogen. Its industry-leading solution reduces both upfront capital costs and ongoing operating expenses, to achieve the industry's lowest levelized cost of hydrogen. Verdagy operates its laboratory and highly automated commercial pilot plants in Moss Landing, California where it continues to advance its cutting-edge technology. For more information, visit: www.verdagy.com.
Media Contacts
Jen Capasso, Verdagy
jcapasso@verdagy.com
Sarah Hubbard, Publitek
verdagy@publitek.com
Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2171181/Verdagy.jpg
SOURCE Verdagy
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