Longtime Customers Become Equity Investors as Caltech Spinout Commercializes Four Years of R&D

October 23, 2024 12:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time

CHATSWORTH, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Calicat^tm (California Catalysts^tm, formerly known as H2U Technologies), the world’s premier developer of advanced materials for electrolysis, today announced the close of its $3M Series A-2 funding bringing the total amount raised to $18M. The round enjoyed participation from existing investors including Volo Earth Ventures, Dolby Family Ventures, Freeflow Ventures, Hess, Motus Ventures and Jericho Energy Ventures and welcomed new investors Acario Innovation (the corporate venture arm of Tokyo Gas) and MOL Switch (the venture arm of Mitsui OSK Lines). Calicat is deploying these funds on productization of their non-Iridium catalysts and coatings for PEM electrolysis cells, widely used in the production of Green Hydrogen.

Spun out of Caltech four years ago to commercialize $120M of DOE funding on the JCAP program, Calicat uses a proprietary set of cascading AI models alongside unique physical testing methods to accomplish what previously would have required years of electrocatalyst discovery – every week. Green Hydrogen produced through PEM electrolysis is fundamentally gated by international Iridium mining, which can only generate a very small percentage of the necessary minerals for projected 2030 demand. Through previously announced partnerships with the likes of SoCal Gas, Tokyo Gas (owner of new investor Acario Innovation), and DeNora, Calicat has already had an outsized impact on this minerals-constrained industry.

Early investor and board member Jourdan Urbach became CEO in January of this year to speed the translation of years of R&D effort into products that lower the levelized cost of Hydrogen (LCOH) for electrolyzer OEMs, producers, and operators. Calicat’s keen focus on LCOH as a key metric in industry has shaped unique oxygen evolution reaction catalysts and porous transport layer coatings that immediately lower OpEx and enable greater CapEX amortization.

“Calicat’s vision has always been to address and solve the intractable materials challenges which have stood in the way of realizing the $500B Green Hydrogen promise. By using AI and high-throughput experimentation to systematically retire material risks, we aim to be a tide that lifts all the boats in this industry. After years of R&D, we’re excited to come to market through our partners with products that lower Green Hydrogen cost, right now,” said Jourdan Urbach, CEO, Calicat.

“As the venture arm of Japan’s largest gas company, Acario is committed to the challenge of strengthening decarbonization tools for hard to abate end-use sectors. We are excited for this opportunity to back Calicat, growing from a long-time customer of its lab work to an equity partner in the productization of these research efforts. Calicat is in a unique position to solve the intractable issues of cost and scarcity that have historically limited the market reach of the most evolved approaches to water electrolysis,” said Kenji Maeda, CEO, Acario.

“We’re excited to continue on this journey with Calicat as they leverage AI to model and predict new material properties that can unlock the potential of hydrogen energy. Fueling a cleaner and more sustainable future is a core component of our thesis and Calicat is at the forefront of making it a reality,” said David Fleck, Founder and Managing Partner, Freeflow Ventures.

About California Catalysts

California Catalysts, formerly H2U Technologies, is the world’s premier developer of advanced materials and stack components for low-cost hydrogen production at scale. Based on years of scientific research at Caltech funded by the Department of Energy, Calicat uses AI alongside proprietary material testing methods to discover and evaluate low-cost electrocatalysts, dramatically increasing the pace of sustainable material development and reducing costs by orders of magnitude. Learn more at https://calicat.com.

Contacts

California Catalysts
info@calicat.com

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