An investment fund aimed at raising €1bn ($1.2bn) from financial and industrial investors to finance projects in the production, storage and distribution of clean hydrogen is to launch later this week.

The FiveT Hydrogen Fund will receive initial funding from fuel cell firm Plug Power €160mn, engineering firm Chart Industries €50mn and energy technology company Baker Hughes €50mn. The cornerstone investors will also help to guide the fund’s early stages of investment. The fund aim is to secure a further $740m exclusively from qualifying private investors.

The fund will be led by Pierre-Etienne Franc, who was the vice president of hydrogen energy for industrial gases company Air Liquide and co-secretary of the Hydrogen Council until becoming FiveT CEO last week. “FiveT’s ambition is indeed to put forward a distinctive fund value proposition for financial and industrial LPs wishing to be the hydrogen infrastructure key players,” he said.

“Driving energy transition requires innovative models” Simonelli, Baker Hughes

The fund will utilise the technical knowledge of its three cornerstone investors to identify the best financial investments as well as their assistance in securing alliances with industrial partners looking to build a supply chain within the hydrogen economy.

Franc’s industry contacts and expertise will help achieve this, according to Jill Evanko, CEO of Chart Industries. “We believe the coupling of Pierre-Etienne Franc’s extensive experience in building the hydrogen marketplace with other key players in the industry is a recipe for success,” she said.

New models of funding are needed to help economies decarbonise at the required pace, according to Lorenzo Simonelli, CEO of Baker Hughes. “To drive the energy transition forward requires innovative models for collaboration and investment, and new energy frontiers like hydrogen will progress faster when key players come together,” he said.

FiveT Group confirmed to Hydrogen Economist that it will open to private investors later this week. It expects to close the fund in the third quarter of 2021, with the first capital being contributed by investors in early 2022.

This is one of the first significant funds of its type, according to Andy Marsh, CEO of Plug Power. “We believe this fund will help accelerate the construction of hydrogen infrastructure globally which will support rapid deployment of fuel cell applications,” he said.

A separate fund called Hydrogen One Capital was established earlier this year by former Shell executive JJ Traynor and Richard Hulf, formerly of ExxonMobil and UK active fund manager Artemis.

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Author: Tom Young