French private equity investment house Ardian and pure-play clean hydrogen investment platform FiveT have formed a joint venture, called Hy24, which aims to raise a €1.5bn ($1.7bn) fund to invest in clean hydrogen infrastructure.

The fund—which Ardian and FiveT say will form the world’s largest investment platform in this space—has already secured €800m from a group of anchor investors which selected Hy24 via a tender process.

TotalEnergies, industrial gases group Air Liquide and construction company Vinci have each committed €100m. Fuel cell company Plug Power, clean energy and industrial gases company Chart Industries and oil services company Baker Hughes, all former cornerstone investors in FiveT Hydrogen, have also joined as anchor investors.

€100m – TotalEnergies' commitment to fund

Industrial group Lotte Chemical and asset management and insurance firm Axa have also confirmed their intention to join as anchor investors. Other players planning to join the fund include French airport operator Groupe ADP, US fuel cell company Ballard, French energy company EDF and German auto component maker Schaeffler.

“Via this unique partnership, we expect to mobilize €15bn worth of investments as a catalyst for scaling up the industry at pace,” says Pierre-Etienne Franc, co-founder and CEO of FiveT.

The FiveT hydrogen fund was launched in April this year with a target of €1bn from financial and industrial investors to finance clean hydrogen production, storage and distribution projects.

Mathias Burghardt, Ardian’s head of infrastructure says, “At a time when the European Union has announced a step-up in its climate ambitions, and just ahead of Cop26, it is a great responsibility to lead such a platform."

“We were early backers of the renewables market—our platform reaching 7.5GW of heat and renewable capacity today—and it is clear to us that hydrogen is facing a similar trajectory,” he adds.

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Author: Stuart Penson