- The Bulgarian company that specializes in the research and development of technologies for hydrogen production, Hydrogenera, closes a €2M round led by the financial products and services firm Karoll.
- The investment round is joined by the local venture capital firm IMPETUS CAPITAL, and the venture capital financing arm of Management Financial Group (MFG), MFG Invest. Alongside them, some angel investors took part.
- Hydrogenera will use the financing to expand its production capacities, acquire new equipment, and attract more experts to its team.
“For the last two years, we have successfully implemented 82 projects in three different countries and integrated 56 hydrogen systems of different capacities in industrial enterprises and public buildings. Some of our electrolyzers (a system that uses electricity to break water into hydrogen and oxygen) have been operating for more than four years. Our vision is to demonstrate that hydrogen can be the main energy source as it is universal, has a zero carbon footprint, and can completely replace conventional fuels,” Dragomir Ivanov, founder, and CEO of Hydrogenera, comments on the investment.
Founded in 2016 by Dragomir Ivanov, the brand of Green Innovation Ltd, specializes in the development of modular products and systems that enable the production of green hydrogen through electrolysis.
The company is primarily focused on the Bulgarian market and maintains a B2B focus, targeting larger polluters from the food, construction, and other industries. In the last 6 years, Hydrogenera has developed technological solutions that cover the full spectrum of the hydrogen economy – from hydrogen production and storage to hydrogen distribution and transportation.
The hydrogen mini refineries of Hydrogenera
The modular products of the startup, its electrolyzers, operate as mini refineries which can transform one liter of water into two cubic meters of a two-to-one mixture of hydrogen and oxygen. The electrolyzer acts like a reactor and ensures that the process is optimized, automated, safe, and has minimal losses.
“Hydrogen is the solution to the severe energy crisis and is the reasonable path to a greenhouse-emissions-free society. That’s why Green Innovation’s innovative approach to solving the global warming problem attracted our attention”, Nikolay Martinov, founder, and Managing Partner at IMPETUS Capital highlights, adding that the strong team behind the startup and the results they have achieved so far show potential for the company to become one of the leaders in the field of hydrogen technologies.
Hydrogenera is the only Bulgarian company that has been accepted as a member of the European Clean Hydrogen Alliance which aims to support the large-scale deployment of clean hydrogen technologies by 2030. In addition, the company is part of the Hydrogen Global initiative of the World Energy Council that promotes the deployment of clean hydrogen and hydrogen-based fuels and works alongside together with Siemens Energy, The Australian Technological Institute, and the Australian government.
The team of the Bulgarian hydrogen startup currently consists of twenty professionals, the majority of whom are seasoned engineers. Having implemented more than 80 projects in Bulgaria, Poland, and Turkey, Hydrogenera is a leader in the production and integration of alkaline electrolyzers in Central and Eastern Europe. In the last 2 years, the company had a 71% average annual growth in turnover, which is part of the reason why the team attracted the interest of private investors.
