Cleantech startup Advanced Ionics announced today that it has raised $12.5 million, with proceeds from the funding round supporting the deployment of its green hydrogen production technology aimed at helping to decarbonize heavy industry.

The financing was led by energy giant bp’s venture arm bp Ventures, and included participation from investors including Clean Energy Ventures, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and GVP Climate.

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. The development of clean hydrogen capacity, such as green hydrogen, which uses renewable energy to power the process to extract hydrogen from other materials, will require massive investments in areas including infrastructure, electrolysis, transport and storage.

Founded in 2017, Milwaukee-based Advanced Ionics provides solutions aimed at enabling the large-scale production of green hydrogen, and addressing the key obstacles to the acceleration of green hydrogen, including high costs and electricity requirements, with electricity accounting for more than 70% of green hydrogen production costs. The company’s water vapor electrolyzer technology, Symbion, reduces cost and electricity requirements for green hydrogen production, combining onsite process and waste heat from industrial sites, and the system is made of widely available steels and other simple materials, in the place of more expensive materials common in other electrolyzers.

According to the company, the lower electricity requirements enabled by its solution could reduce the cost of green hydrogen production to under $1 per kilogram.

Chad Mason, CEO of Advanced Ionics said:

“bp ventures’ investment in Advanced Ionics is a powerful backing of our technology’s potential to help accelerate green hydrogen’s future and heavy industry’s shift towards decarbonization. The results we’ve achieved in our testing along with early customer interest have indicated that we are an ideal technology provider for industrial customers looking to augment, expand or replace their existing hydrogen production facilities with green hydrogen.”

According to Advanced Ionics, funds from the Series A financing will be used to expand its team, and deliver its electrolyzer systems to early customers.

In addition to its investment, bp said that it will explore pilot opportunities with Advanced Ionics. Hydrogen is one of the bp’s five transition growth engines, alongside bioenergy, convenience, electric vehicle charging, and renewables & power. Last year, bp announced that it plans to increase the proportion of its total capex in these transition growth businesses to more than 40% by 2025 and around 50% by 2030.

Gareth Burns, Vice President of bp ventures, said:

“Advanced Ionics’ technology has the potential to drive down cost and disrupt the hydrogen market. bp has a global portfolio of hydrogen projects, and as the world transitions to a net zero future, it’s important to us to be investing in these technologies and advance the track to deploying green hydrogen. We look forward to working with Advanced Ionics on the next stage of its growth.”