Hydrogen-focused investment startup Hy24 announced today it has closed the funding of its hydrogen impact fund, Clean H2 Infra Fund, raising €2 billion investment, making it the world’s largest infrastructure fund to exclusively invest in the clean hydrogen value chain.

Hydrogen is viewed as one of the key building blocks of the transition to a cleaner energy future, particularly for sectors with difficult to abate emissions, in which renewable energy solutions such as wind or solar are less practical.

Around 90 million metric tons of hydrogen are produced annually, although the vast majority is extracted using fossil fuels, which create pollutants and GHG emissions. Significant investments are required to develop clean extraction processes, such as green hydrogen, which uses a renewable energy-powered electrolysis process to extract hydrogen from water.

The fund focuses on scaling proven hydrogen technologies for mature infrastructure assets throughout the entire clean hydrogen value chain, from upstream projects such as renewable and low carbon hydrogen production to downstream projects such as captive fleet and refueling stations.

Launched in 2021, Hy24 is a joint venture between private investment house, Ardian, and hydrogen enabling investment platform, FiveT Hydrogen. According to Hy24, the firm aims to mobilize as much as €20 billion in investment capacity over the next 6 years.

Pierre-Etienne Franc, co-founder and CEO of Hy24, said:

“Hy24, through the Clean H2 Infra Fund, has rapidly gathered an impressive group of industrial and financial leaders committed to moving the hydrogen agenda forward significantly. With €2 billion of commitments, this fund will spur on the deployment of up to €20 billion in assets of strategic value to the industry in the next six years, performing for our investors and helping to decarbonize the global economy. This creates the right support for the new and critical hydrogen policy frameworks in our key geographies.”

According to Hy24, half of the commitments for the new fund were made by industrial investors, including CMA CGM, Air Liquide and TotalEnergies, with financial investors including Nuveen, Societe Generale, AXA, Allianz and BBVA.

To date, the fund has invested in including a €110 million fundraising of H2 MOBILITY Deutschland, the operator of Europe’s largest network of hydrogen stations, as well as the €200 million financing round of Hy2Gen, an operator of production sites for decarbonized hydrogen.

The Fund is an Article 9 Fund under European SFDR regulations.

Laurent Fayollas, Deputy Head of Infrastructure at Ardian and President of Hy24, commented:

“We are extremely grateful for the trust and support of our investors. The combination of Ardian’s unique investment and asset management expertise, FiveT Hydrogen’s industry knowledge, the diversity of our investors and our ability to leverage Hy24’s strong deal flow will put us in a unique position to grow this industry at scale into a decisive asset class.”

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