Australian green hydrogen technology startup Hysata has received a US$20 million investment from South Korean steel giant POSCO Holdings Inc. and banking giant Shinhan Financial Group.
The two Korean businesses took part in Hysata’s US$111 million Series B fundraising, which was reportedly the largest in Australian clean tech history, according to Shinhan Securities Co. on Friday.
Through a Korean fund, Shinhan and POSCO participated in the funding round. As limited partners or LP investors, the two companies’ affiliates, POSCO E&C, Shinhan Bank, and Shinhan Capital, made their investments.
The Korean fund’s operating manager is Shinhan Securities.
POSCO and Shinhan announced that they are taking part in Hysata’s investment round as financial and strategic investors. POSCO is interested in producing hydrogen to be used in the production of green iron and steel.
Hysata, a Wollongong-based company founded in 2021, manufactures high-efficiency electrolyzers with the goal of expediting the transition away from fossil fuels and providing affordable green hydrogen.
According to Hysata, the company is working on a very effective electrolyzer that will need less electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen so that hydrogen can be produced.
One of the main components needed to make the switch to cleaner energy sources in the future is hydrogen. Infrastructure, electrolysis, transportation, and storage will all need to see significant investments made in order to generate clean hydrogen capacity, such as green hydrogen, which extracts hydrogen from other materials using renewable energy.
Immediate Financial And Strategic Investors
According to Hysata, the money it receives will be used to enhance its technology and increase production capacity at its Wollongong, New South Wales, manufacturing site. The company wants to achieve gigawatt-scale manufacturing.
A group of major strategic and financial investors, including IP Group Australia, Kiko Ventures, IP Group plc’s cleantech platform, Virescent Ventures on behalf of Clean Energy Finance Corp., Hostplus, Vestas Ventures—the investment arm of wind power turbine maker Vestas—and BlueScopeX—led the Series B funding, which was led by BP Ventures, a capital arm of global energy firm BP Plc, and Hong Kong-based investment fund Templewater.
POSCO Holdings, POSCO E&C, Shinhan Financial Group, IMM Investment Hong Kong, Twin Towers Ventures, IDO, the venture capital arm of the Oman Investment Authority, and TelstraSuper are some of the new, significant strategic and financial investors.
Head of global investment at Shinhan Securities Park Shin-wha stated, “This year, we are looking for investment opportunities in other growth industries like data centers and AI, in addition to investing in green hydrogen companies like Hysata.”
The head of POSCO Holdings’ carbon neutrality team, Chun Seong-rae, stated: “We need to build a low-carbon steel production facility for sustainable growth. POSCO will actively pursue low-carbon technologies to remain competitive in the steel industry.”
