Versogen, a green energy startup based in Wilmington, has raised a $14.5 million Series A fundraising round.
The round is led by Korean holding company Doosan Corp. and its affiliate HyAxiom Inc. There is also participation from du Pont de Nemours spinoff Chemours Co. and TechEnergy Ventures, among others.
Versogen founder Yushan Yan is chair of the University of Delaware's chemical and biomolecular engineering department. Prior to the appointment he was the founding associate dean for research and entrepreneurship at the school's College of Engineering.
Versogen spun out of the university in 2019 and is located at the Delaware Innovation Space in Wilmington.
The green energy startup uses electrolyzers — systems that break down water into hydrogen and oxygen using electricity from wind and the sun — as it aims to decarbonize polluting industries. The company has a goal of eliminating 1.4 million tons of carbon emissions annually by 2030, a mark it hopes to attain by scaling up its electrolyzer stack production.
The funding, the company says, will go toward the development and prototype of "next-generation" electrolyzer stacks and expanding production of Versogen's patented anion exchange membranes, an essential part of building the electrolyzer stacks.
Yan said that the investment is a step toward a "net-zero future," referring to the global mission to balance the amount of greenhouse gases produced and removed from the earth's atmosphere.
"This new investment will allow us to scale up the membrane manufacturing process further to bring down the costs and expand our customer base," Yan said in a statement.
By 2030, the company is looking to sell 200 of its next-gen electrolyzers, which would have the capacity to produce 153,400 tons of hydrogen per year. That's enough to fit the demand of eight small refineries. Versogen says that demand for hydrogen is projected to grow exponentially in the coming years and the chemical element is commonly created by carbon-emitting machines.
As demand and costs for hydrogen rise, the startup is using renewable, cost-effective energy like wind and sunlight to produce its hydrogen. Versogo predicts that green hydrogen will be cheaper to produce than fossil fuel-emitting hydrogen production by 2030.
