Startups
Amogy, a startup enabling tractors and ships to run on carbon-free fuel, just raised $46 million using this pitch deck
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- Amogy just secured $46 million to help build its environmentally friendly energy system.
- Its technology, which has powered a drone and tractor in demonstrations, uses ammonia as a fuel.
- Insider got an exclusive look at the 12-slide pitch deck it used to raise the fresh investment.
A startup that has created an energy system, similar to an engine, that allows ammonia to be used as a fuel has just raised $46 million.
New York-based Amogy, which was founded in 2021, has built a fuel storage cell for ammonia so that tractors and ships can be powered by the lightweight, power-dense chemical, which is partly made of hydrogen but can be stored more easily.
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It builds on work in the hydrogen industry. Unlike batteries, which are used for both energy storage and power generation, using hydrogen as a fuel requires a two-part system. Systems are made up of a hydrogen gas tank to store the fuel, and a fuel cell, which generates power.
“In the hydrogen technology, the difficult component is the gas storage,” Amogy CEO and cofounder Seonghoon Woo told Insider. “It requires a massive tank and large volumes. You can store the hydrogen as a liquid, but that requires pretty cryogenic temperatures.”
This is where his company’s technology comes in. Woo, a former MIT and IBM scientist, and his cofounders have designed a chemical reactor to convert ammonia to hydrogen onboard vehicles. They chose ammonia because it is easier to store as a liquid, is carbon-free, and is already used in several applications across the world, so storage, handling, and delivery infrastructure already exists.
Amogy’s chemical reactor, which Amogy calls “the cracker,” extracts hydrogen from the ammonia which then flows to the existing hydrogen fuel cell to create power. The startup has demonstrated its technology on both a drone and a tractor after retrofitting the system.
Any “heavy transportation” sector is its target market, starting with agriculture and shipping, which Woo said has so far been underserved in the race to go green. It comes as a recent Royal Society report said hydrogen and ammonia should be “prioritized” for such industries.
“We are witnessing the pretty rapid electrification of the consumer vehicle,” Woo said. “Tesla started it, but all vehicle manufacturers are announcing that from 2025 and 2030 they will only build electric, which is great for the environment.”
Yet on the other side, there is heavy transportation, such as trucks, tractors, aeroplanes, and ships, where those kind of efforts are either in their infancy or haven’t begun at all yet because the technology is not available, Woo said.
Ammonia, however, is harmful to humans, so consumer applications are currently off the cards.
“It has been very well managed and dealt with in commercial areas,” Woo said. “In the consumer area, applying such tight protocols and standards is very difficult.”
The company may have just a single tractor running on ammonia today, but it hopes one day it could be billions of vehicles. Amogy has set a goal to reduce roughly 5 billion metric tons of CO2-equivalent emissions by 2040, while playing its part in achieving net zero 2050.
The Series A bridge round, which brings the startup’s total investment raised to $70 million, was led by SK Innovation. Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund, AP Ventures, Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures, and Newlab also participated.
Amogy hopes to next demonstrate its technology on an 18-wheel tractor trailer and a cargo ship.
The fresh funds will be used to grow the team from over 53 to around 110 by the end of the year. It is also eyeing new US offices in efforts to be close to potential partners and lure in talent from heavy industry.
See the pitch deck that helped Amogy raise its $46 million Series A bridge round below.