Leuven, December 7, 2023 – Solhyd, known for its hydrogen panels that directly produce renewable hydrogen from air and solar energy, is raising seed capital from a group of experienced entrepreneurs. The consortium of investors commits to injecting up to 6 million euros into the company over the next few years. An initial tranche of 2 million euros in seed capital is being provided today. The funds will be used, at this stage of the company, to further optimize the basic technology and deploy it in pilot applications. There is significant potential for this technology, which generates renewable hydrogen without the need for a power grid or liquid water and without the use of rare materials.

Hydrogen will play a crucial role in the future energy mix of a CO₂-neutral society. When produced from green electricity, it is a renewable source of energy (‘green hydrogen’) that can be easily stored and transported. However, green electricity is currently scarce and expensive, leading to hydrogen production mainly relying on natural gas (‘grey hydrogen’).

Therefore, Solhyd offers an alternative: ‘golden hydrogen.’ “This is hydrogen directly made from what is universally available, sunlight and air,” says Jan Rongé, CEO of the company. As a spin-off from KU Leuven, Solhyd builds on the technology developed at the university. The Solhyd core technology was developed by Jan Rongé and Tom Bosserez, who completed their doctorates under the supervision of Professor Johan Martens. Together with their team, they have worked on the science behind this product for more than ten years.

The intellectual property, knowledge, and patents related to the core technology are now incorporated into the spin-off with the goal of further developing them within Solhyd. “The Solhyd technology consists of cylinders containing materials to extract moisture from the air and separate it into hydrogen and oxygen through a membrane. Both the materials and the device were developed from the outset to be robust and affordable, without the use of rare materials,” says Tom Bosserez, CTO of the company. The technology has been demonstrated in hydrogen panels in recent years to prove that it works well, even in the variable Belgian climate. The hydrogen panels can be deployed almost anywhere in the world.

Internationally, there is a lot of attention for Solhyd’s technology and its applications in a climate-neutral economy. Green hydrogen is an essential element to decarbonize sectors such as steel production and chemistry. In addition, this green fuel can benefit certain decentralized applications, and could be useful for SMEs. The pace of the transition has to increase, as was again demonstrated by latest climate report and the recent climate summit.

The Solhyd team will fine-tune these applications together with partner companies and organizations. “Our team now consists of 7 people with diverse backgrounds, and I have a lot of confidence in their abilities,” says Rongé, “But with these resources, we will also attract new people to accelerate our efforts.”

“We are very satisfied with our capital round and with the quality of the consortium of investors that we managed to convince. They bring not only money to the table but also their experience in entrepreneurship and technology development,” he continues. “We deliberately selected investors who provide added value and who were supportive of our impact philosophy.” The investors are Vansan Investments (the family office of brick manufacturer Vandersanden), serial entrepreneur Luc Thijs (ex-Alro), Keiretsu Ventures (ex-Key Technology), and Lieven Danneels (co-CEO Televic Group). Additionally, the Gemma Frisius seed capital fund from the university itself is also participating.

“As investors, we are very pleased to have been selected by the Solhyd team to invest and to make our knowledge and expertise available to take the company to the next level,” adds Frank Zwerts (Keiretsu Ventures). “We are delighted that research of this scale in deep tech can also grow in Flanders. If we manage to scale the Solhyd technology, we have been able to support a significant player in the rapidly growing market of green energy.”