Series D: Euro 86 million for electrolysis specialist Sunfire

Dresden/ Solingen/ Zug (CH)/ The elec­tro­ly­sis company Sunfire has recei­ved EUR 86 million from inves­tors. Parti­ci­pants in the expan­ded Series D finan­cing round include Copen­ha­gen Infra­struc­ture Part­ners (CIP), through its Copen­ha­gen Infra­struc­ture Energy Tran­si­tion I fund, and Blue Earth Capi­tal. Sunfire thus increa­ses its Series D capi­tal raising to a total of €195 million ($215 million). In addi­tion, CIP is ente­ring into an agree­ment with Sunfire to purchase pres­su­ri­zed alka­line elec­tro­ly­sers with a total capa­city of up to 640 MW for use in its multi-GW power-to‑X projects across Europe.

Up to 640 MW elec­tro­ly­sis for CIP

Through its Copen­ha­gen Infra­struc­ture Energy Tran­si­tion Fund I, CIP is support­ing Sunfire in the indus­tria­liza­tion of its hydro­gen tech­no­lo­gies. The fund company is one of the world’s largest project deve­lo­pers for rene­wa­ble ener­gies and is active in the areas of offshore wind power, energy storage and power-to‑X, among others.

To imple­ment its plan­ned power-to‑X projects, CIP needs relia­ble, indus­trial elec­tro­ly­sis plants. The avai­la­bi­lity of these is still very limi­ted world­wide. In a frame­work agree­ment, the project deve­lo­per ther­e­fore also secu­res access to elec­tro­ly­sis capa­ci­ties from Sunfire. In the coming years, CIP plans to purchase pres­su­ri­zed alka­line elec­tro­ly­sers with a total capa­city of up to 640 MW and use them in its multi-GW projects throug­hout Europe.

“This agree­ment adds huge value for all parties invol­ved,” says Sunfire CEO Nils Aldag. “CIP can rely on our advan­ced alkali elec­tro­ly­sers and on our dedi­ca­ted team of experts — at the same time demons­t­ra­ting that we are a relia­ble part­ner for giga­­watt-scale projects.”

Invest­ment company BlueE­arth contri­bu­tes capi­tal and expertise

As part of its climate stra­tegy, BlueE­arth is also part­ne­ring with Sunfire. The globally active invest­ment company was foun­ded by the Swiss Part­ners Group and built up with its support. Urs Wiet­lis­bach (photo) is Co-foun­­der & Chair­man Blue Earth Capi­tal AG and Co-Foun­­der Part­ners Group AG.

BlueE­arth places a high value on being invol­ved beyond its invest­ment. To support Sunfire in its growth, the new part­ners are ther­e­fore contri­bu­ting their entre­pre­neu­rial expe­ri­ence and expert know­ledge around the topic of growth and climate protection.

About Sunfire
Sunfire is a leading global elec­tro­ly­sis company that designs and manu­fac­tures indus­trial elec­tro­ly­zers based on alkali and solid oxide tech­no­lo­gies (SOEC). With its elec­tro­ly­sis solu­ti­ons, Sunfire is addres­sing the key chall­enge of today’s energy system: the provi­sion of green hydro­gen and synthe­sis gas as a climate-neutral substi­tute for fossil energy. Sunfire’s inno­va­tive and proven elec­tro­ly­sis tech­no­lo­gies enable the decar­bo­niza­tion of indus­trial sectors that today are still depen­dent on oil, gas or coal. The company employs more than 370 people at loca­ti­ons in Germany and Switz­er­land. www.sunfire.de

About Copen­ha­gen Infra­s­tuc­ture Partners
Copen­ha­gen Infra­struc­ture Part­ners P/S is the world’s largest specia­li­zed fund mana­ger for green­field invest­ments in rene­wa­ble energy and a global leader in offshore wind. At COP26, CIP announ­ced a goal and road­map to streng­then and acce­le­rate its role in imple­men­ting the energy tran­si­tion by support­ing green energy invest­ments with €100 billion by 2030.

CIP mana­ges nine funds and has appro­xi­m­ately €16 billion in assets under manage­ment focu­sed on invest­ments in energy infra­struc­ture — inclu­ding offshore wind, onshore wind, photo­vol­taic, biomass and energy from waste, trans­mis­sion and distri­bu­tion, reserve capa­city and storage, and other energy assets such as power-to‑X. Today, the CIP funds have about 100 inter­na­tio­nal insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors from the Nordic count­ries, conti­nen­tal Europe, the United King­dom, Israel, Asia, Austra­lia and North America, as well as multi­la­te­ral orga­niza­ti­ons such as the EIB. CIP employs around 300 people and has offices in Copen­ha­gen, London, Hamburg, Utrecht, New York, Tokyo, Singa­pore and Melbourne. The invest­ment in Sunfire will be part of CIP’s Energy Tran­si­tion Fund I, which focu­ses on power-to‑X and other next-gene­ra­­tion rene­wa­ble tech­no­lo­gies to faci­li­tate the decar­bo­niza­tion of hard-to-delete sectors such as steel, agri­cul­ture and trans­por­ta­tion. www.cip.dk

About Blue Earth Capital
Blue Earth Capi­tal is a global impact invest­ment firm head­quar­te­red in Zug, Switz­er­land, with offices in London, New York and Singa­pore. Blue Earth Capi­tal invests in compa­nies that address pres­sing envi­ron­men­tal and social chal­lenges while opera­ting profi­ta­bly. Blue Earth Capi­tal was initia­ted in 2015 by Urs Wiet­lis­bach, one of the foun­ders of Part­ners Group, and is supported by the Ursi­mone Wiet­lis­bach Foun­da­tion. Blue Earth Capi­tal was built with the help of Part­ners Group and lever­a­ges its expe­ri­ence as a leading global private markets firm. www.blueearth.capital

About Carbon Direct Capi­tal Management
Carbon Direct combi­nes scien­ti­fic exper­tise, tech­no­logy and finan­cial capi­tal to grow carbon manage­ment into a global indus­try. Our invest­ment busi­ness — Carbon Direct Capi­tal Manage­ment LLC — makes direct invest­ments in leading tech­no­logy compa­nies in the carbon manage­ment sector. Our consul­ting company — Carbon Direct Inc. — supports corpo­rate custo­mers with carbon manage­ment solu­ti­ons. Carbon Direct’s team is made up of world-renow­­ned carbon scien­tists who have a deep under­stan­ding of the risks and oppor­tu­ni­ties of carbon tech­no­lo­gies. The company has offices in New York City and Seattle.
For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.carbon-direct.com

Advi­sor to CIP: Henge­ler Mueller
The firm was repre­sen­ted by part­ners Dr. Jens Wenzel (Venture Capital/M&A, Berlin) and Hendrik Bocken­hei­mer (Labor Law, Frank­furt), coun­sel Fabian Seip (Intellec­tual Property/IT), Alex­an­der Bekier (Corporate/M&A) and Dr. Moritz Rade­ma­cher (Energy Law, Düssel­dorf) as well as asso­cia­tes Theresa Scharff, Dr. Björn Brauer, Ciro D’Ame­lio (all Venture Capital/M&A, Berlin) and Mona Geimer (Labor Law, Frankfurt).