UK-based hydrogen power firm Geopura has secured £36mn ($43.5mn) in a Series A financing round led by US automaker General Motors’ investment arm GM Ventures and co-led by London-headquartered bank Barclays. Other strategic investors include private equity firm Swen Capital Partners and Germany’s Siemens Ventures.

Geopura manufactures and supplies hydrogen power units to replace traditional diesel generators for temporary, supplementary, offgrid and backup power. Its units have been trialled by UK companies infrastructure group Balfour Beatty, transmission system operator National Grid, national broadcaster the BBC and during construction of the HS2 rail network.

“The need for green hydrogen energy solutions is expanding as a wide range of customers move towards replacing diesel-powered sources,” says Wade Sheffer, managing director of GM Ventures. “Our investment in Geopura demonstrates our focus on scaling breakthrough innovations that can advance sustainability, while supporting GM’s progress toward an all-electric, zero-emissions future.”

“The need for green hydrogen energy solutions is expanding as a wide range of customers move toward replacing diesel-powered sources” Sheffer, GM Ventures

“While most of the focus in the UK is rightly on 'greening' our energy grid, industries which are reliant on fossil-fuel powered generators—such as construction, film production and events—should not be forgotten,” says James Ferrier, head of sustainable impact capital at Barclays. “Establishing tailored methods of offgrid green energy generation such as Geopura’s Hydrogen Power Unit technology will be crucial for the decarbonisation of these industries, and we are excited to support Geopura as they begin to scale.”

The company manufactures its units in partnership with Siemens Energy at the engineering firm’s site in Newcastle, as well as in Nottingham. Siemens Energy used one of Geopura’s units to provide backup power during a three-month maintenance outage in 2022 at German energy company Uniper’s Cottam Development Centre natural gas power plant.

Geopura produces its own hydrogen from electrolysis powered by directly connected renewables, including solar PV and a 15MW biomass-fired turbine. The firm is also an offtaker for a number of green hydrogen suppliers, including the UK’s Octopus Hydrogen, owing to high demand for green hydrogen beyond its own production capacity.

“Green hydrogen is too often seen as a technology that will happen in the future, but Geopura and our partners are delivering a commercially viable technology, today. The world cannot afford to wait a decade for green fuels to scale—we must act now,” says the firm’s CEO, Andrew Cunningham.

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Author: Polly Martin