Australian clean energy company, Endua, has raised $11.8 million to scale new hydrogen generation and storage technologies to power communities, rural industries, and off-grid infrastructure.
Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC), Melt Ventures, and 77 Partners are among the new investors backing Endua’s vision and development, each contributing $7.5 million in pre-series capital.
“Endua’s unique technology has enormous potential to support the uptake and transition to clean energy. The energy transition for power generation, remote industries and off-grid infrastructure is a huge challenge and one that requires us to rethink the way we capture and store energy. The adoption of Endua will be critical to plug this gap,” Melt Ventures Managing Partner Trent Bagnall said.
Brent Watts, 77 Partners, Founder and Managing Partner stated: “Endua’s technology is the key to unlocking the potential of renewable energy with smart hydrogen generation and storage. Enabling affordable and reliable green power supply on-site supports a myriad of industries to decarbonise, from remote infrastructure to critical services, including construction, agriculture, resources, telecommunications and urban utilities. As an investor in high-growth ventures, we look for founders and frontier technologies that can scale to markets around the world to create sustainable value for all, and Endua is uniquely positioned to do just that as it ushers in a new era in green energy supply.”
Other returning strategic co-investors include CSIRO‘s deep tech fund, Main Sequence, and Ampol, the country’s largest transport energy provider.
CSIRO, Sarb Giddey, Group Leader (Thermal and Electrochemical Technologies Group) commented: “Our collaboration with Endua, and the hydrogen technology we have devised, can lead to a major reduction in the cost of hydrogen-powered energy storage and delivery. Taking a green hydrogen approach offers the flexibility to scale the electrolyser, storage and fuel cell independently in order to store energy in larger quantities for longer periods of time cost-effectively.”
Main Sequence, Martin Duursma, Partner stated: “In the race towards net zero, creating a decarbonised power generation market requires new energy solutions with long-duration storage. Endua is at the forefront of renewable energy innovation, having identified innovative electrolyser technology from Australian research, the company has embarked on its mission to build products that deliver multi-day energy storage solving one of the critical challenges that intermittent renewables bring. We’re excited about the potential of Endua and its ambitious plans to drive affordable and reliable renewable energy.”
Endua has already received $4.3 million in grants, including the Entrepreneurs’ Programme Accelerating Commercialisation Grant and the Cooperative Research Centres Project (CRC-P) from AusIndustry, and the Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre Grant (AMGC) from the Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre Ltd.
“Clean hydrogen will play a crucial role in our transition to renewable energy, but only with the right technology and business models to make it cost-effective. Our solution will allow off-grid industries like agriculture, water and energy utilities and remote infrastructure to run sustainable power any time of day, regional communities to become self-sufficient, and businesses to have more options to source the power they need,” Endua CEO and Founder Paul Sernia said.
Endua targets microgrid and independent power markets, especially those using off-grid diesel power. Regional communities, towns, and industries including farming, agriculture, telecommunications infrastructure, energy distributors, and remote infrastructure may become self-sustaining with its adaptable technologies.
“The global transition to modern energy sources presents new and difficult challenges. There are places and situations where renewable sources can’t be relied on all of the time. To truly achieve emissions reduction ambitions, we need power that is renewable and available at any time. We’ll use our latest investment to turbocharge Endua’s role in providing a solution that tackles multi-day energy resilience, especially for industries like communications, water and energy services, agriculture and farming, and resources which have huge opportunities for emissions reduction,” Sernia stated.
With its modular hydrogen power banks that can drive power loads of up to 100kW in a single module — enough to run a water pump, farm shed, or independent telecom infrastructure — the Brisbane-based company began in 2021 with a new method of storing renewable energy. This renewable energy is stored as hydrogen and subsequently converted back to electricity using fuel cells, and the flexibility allows solutions to be scaled based on on-site requirements.
“Ampol’s work with Endua is part of our broader strategy to build new energy solutions that can support our customers with energy transition. Endua’s technology lays the foundation for off-grid and diesel energy users to meet decarbonisation commitments and become self-sustaining. We look forward to working with customers as the technology is scaled to further explore applications across our economy,” Ampol Managing Director Matthew Halliday said.
