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Check out the 12-slide pitch deck Bramble Energy, a startup trying to make hydrogen cheaper and more scalable, used to raise $47 million
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- A startup trying to make hydrogen cheaper and more scalable just raised £35 million ($47 million).
- British company Bramble Energy makes hydrogen fuel cells using established manufacturing routes.
- We got an exclusive look at the 12-slide pitch deck it used to raise the fresh funds.
Hydrogen is poised to play a big role in the future of renewable energy.
Around $500 billion has been invested into projects centered on the technology through to 2030, according to figures from the Hydrogen Council and McKinsey.
Lithium-based batteries – used by most electric vehicles – store and deploy power within one unit, but hydrogen needs a fuel cell to generate power, in the same way petrol needs an engine.
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Hydrogen technology is costly and boasts a complex manufacturing process that doesn’t scale easily, according to Bramble Energy, a startup trying to solve this.
The British company, founded in 2016, just raised a £35 million ($47 million) Series B for its hydrogen fuel cells that rely on the printed circuit board (PCB) supply chain instead of having to establish its own.
“The problem fuel cells have is there is no established manufacturing route,” CEO and cofounder Tom Mason told Insider. “Consequently, the billions required to build factories don’t exist. It’s that chicken and egg thing, right? People don’t build fuel-cell factories when you haven’t got established demand for them.”
PCBs are widely used in consumer tech like smartphones and monitors but also in a wide array of industrial equipment. Bramble Energy found a way of building fuel cell stacks using PCB’s established manufacturing route and factories that already exist, which “don’t have to change in any way to make our fuel cell stacks.”
The company “doesn’t have to spend a penny on factories in order to make fuel cell stacks,” which lowers its cost for industry partners. It is next hoping to achieve £100 per kilowatt stack in the next couple of years. Mason said competitors are currently between £250 to £300.
The fuel cells would “look completely alien” to others on the market, the chief executive said, as the team started with a blank sheet of paper rather than evolving existing designs.
“With a fuel cell, the great thing is that you can have a small engine – a small fuel cell – and a huge storage tank of hydrogen to make it go really far, or you could have a small hydrogen tank, as you don’t need to go very far, and big fuel cells to generate some power,” Mason said.
The chief executive also stressed hydrogen is complimentary to battery technology – “not an either-or.” Bramble is currently working with partners on hybrid mobility, with both technologies on board.
It is not targeting specific industries but rather “everywhere there’s a combustion engine.” The 40-strong company plans to grow to 120 as it cements its presence in the UK before heading to Europe and eventually Asia and North America.
The round was led by HydrogenOne Capital Growth, with participation from existing institutional investors BGF, IP Group, university spin-out investors Parkwalk Advisors, and the UCL Technology Fund. It brings the company’s total raised to £40 million ($54 million).
Check out the 12-slide pitch deck the company used to raise the round below:
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