Hydrogen 2.0: Meet 10 impact firms powering the green hydrogen revolution

Hydrogen is one of those energy sources that always seems just around the corner but struggles to get over the line. With that caveat, however, green hydrogen (typically understood as being generated without carbon emissions) seems to be all the rage.

The EU has put green hydrogen front and centre of its green transition ambitions, pouring billions of euros into home-grown projects. There are many competing ways to acquire green hydrogen – and many companies competing to be the market leader at all stages of the supply chain.

Impact Loop has chosen ten European companies to spotlight, each with their own unique technology, strategy, or approach.

Mantle8

Founding year: 2024.

Founder: Emmanuel Masini.

Geophysics lead: Suzon Jammes.

Latest funding: €3.4m Seed round in early 2025.

Based in Grenoble in south-east France, Mantle8 is pursuing what many previously regarded as a pipe dream: ‘white’ or natural hydrogen. Without any need for human intervention, white hydrogen is created naturally when water and iron in the earth’s core interact.

With the costs of electrolysis (the typical way to generate green hydrogen) still high, natural hydrogen, according to those like Mantle8 trying to get it out of the ground, offers a plentiful supply of clean energy.

"This climate-friendly resource remains largely untapped, held back by persistent misconceptions, that there’s not enough of it, that it’s too remote, or that it requires injection or fracking to extract," Mantle8’s CEO Emmanuel Masini tells Impact Loop.

The startup recently announced it had discovered record levels of natural hydrogen with its proprietary technology in the Comminges region in Pyrenees, where it has an exclusive exploration license.

45-8 ENERGY

Founding year: 2017.

Founders: Benoît Hauville, Nicolas Pélissier.

Latest funding: €20m Series B in 2023.

France really is the country for natural hydrogen startups, it seems (not least because of massive deposits discovered in recent years). 45-8 ENERGY, based in Metz in the North, are on the same hunt as Mantle8, though they started as a helium producer.

The firm, in partnership with Storengy, was awarded two natural hydrogen exploration licenses in south-west France in March 2025, and has the backing of major players such as state-backed Bpifrance and TotalEnergies Ventures.

The emergence of startups like 45-8 ENERGY, and Mantle8 mentioned above, seems to suggest that natural hydrogen may be the next major growth area for clean energy.

Hystar

Founding year: 2020.

Founders: Fredrik Mowill, Magnus Thomassen, Alejandro Oyarce Barnett.

COO: Bente Traa.

Latest funding: €31.4m Series C in May 2025.

Moving on from ‘white’ hydrogen back to green. Based near Norway’s capital Oslo, Hystar specialises in electrolysis solutions to create green hydrogen. Their USP is that their systems are, they claim, the most efficient and safe on the market.

The firm sits squarely in the bracket of European innovation success stories, with major backing of €26m in 2024 from the EU Innovation Fund to go towards its 1.5 MW project ‘HyPilot’ in Western Norway.

"Hydrogen is indeed not a bubble, but a viable and essential component of the global energy transition," wrote the company on LinkedIn. With a highly successful Series C round, the company is looking at commercial scale-up and filling customer orders.

Sunfire

Founding year: 2010.

Founders: Carl Berninghausen, Christian von Olshausen, Nils Aldag.

Latest funding: €200m from Commerzbank-led consortium in early 2025.

Germany is emerging as a major player in green hydrogen, with lots of state support. No better evidence of that is Dresden-based Sunfire, which received a €100m investment in 2025 via the EU’s InvestEU programme and, most recently, €200m from a consortium of several major European banks.

Sunfire is in the electrolyser game as well, but with a solid development base and that massive backing, they’re looking not just to scale their own operations, but help develop the hydrogen market overall.

At the time of that €200m announcement, CEO Frank Posnanski commented that it "demonstrates confidence in young companies and future-oriented technologies. It is a signal that Germany is determined to make its industry sustainable and fit for the future."

Green Hydrogen Technology (GHT)

Founding year: 2020.

Founder: Harald Mayer.

Head of Process Engineering: Nadia Romdhane.

Latest funding: n/a.

Staying in Germany, this time in Augsburg in Bavaria, but turning back to the truly innovative side of things. GHT, founded by serial entrepreneur Harald Mayer, turns various waste products – including single-use plastics – into green hydrogen with its patented technology, which they say can be quickly scaled and is cheaper than traditional electrolysis.

While GHT doesn’t appear to have had any funding rounds yet (though there are signs one might be in the works), they’ve been making waves in Germany by setting up pilot plants and partnering with major energy players like Rheinenergie and the Westfalen Group to start delivering green hydrogen while also addressing the country’s glut of plastic.

ivBOT

Founding year: 2023.

CEO: Feroz Mohammed.

Latest funding: n/a.

This London-based startup is a bit of an oddity on this list. It doesn’t list founders, nor does it appear to have had any funding rounds yet. But it does carve out its own niche in the green hydrogen game, which is worth taking notice of.

ivBOT is an internet of things (IoT) company, which touts its proprietary software platform – including a digital twin system – for managing and optimising green hydrogen systems.

"Our platform enables you to monitor electrolysers, storage tanks, and distribution systems seamlessly," boasts the company on its website. The nascent company seems to be actively engaging the industry at expos around the world, so certainly one to watch.

Solhyd

Founding year: 2023.

Founders: Jan Rongé, Tom Bosserez.

Latest funding: €6m Seed round in 2023.

Solhyd, based in Leuven in Belgium, represents some of the best in hydrogen innovation. Or at least that’s what the judges at the World Hydrogen Awards thought, when they crowned Solhyd one of the winners for 2025.

Spun out of KU Leuven, building on the doctoral work by the two founders, Solhyd has developed solar panels that use sunlight to electrolyse water vapour in the air into hydrogen and oxygen (they call this process ‘golden’ hydrogen).

The company is still working on expanding its pilot lines, but as the technology relies simply on modified conventional solar panels, the potential for scaling is massive, and the company reportedly aims to be producing at a megawatt scale by 2026.

HiiROC

Founding year: 2019.

Founders: Tim Davies, Simon Morris, Ate Wiekamp.

Latest funding: €30m in first venture round, 2021.

Based in Hull in the UK’s North-East, HiiROC uses its proprietary Thermal Plasma Electrolysis system, taking feedstock such as methane, flare gas or biomethane, to generate green hydrogen.

The company says their system is more cost- and energy-efficient than water electrolysis. The process also generates a by-product known as carbon black, which has various industrial applications.

The firm has signed deals with majors like construction materials multinational Cemex, as well as industrial giant Siemens. HiiROC also recently announced a strategic collaboration for a hydrogen plant in their hometown of Hull, partnering with Associated British Ports and the px Group.

Hydrogenious LOHC Technologies

Founding year: 2013.

Founder: Peter Wasserscheid, Wolfgang Arlt, Eberhard Schlücker, Daniel Teichmann.

Latest funding: €17m in early 2025.

One thing we’ve not looked at yet in this list is the storage and transport of hydrogen, which due to its low density can be a costly and wasteful affair compared to other energy sources.

That’s where Hydrogenious – based in Germany and Norway – comes in. The firm uses a liquid organic carrier (LOHC), benzyltoluene, to bind the hydrogen in large volumes. In that form, it can be stored and transported with minimal cost and waste, according to the company.

Hydrogenious recently announced that it had received approval for the world’s largest commercial hydrogen storage plant in Germany. Commercial operations of the plant – with a projected capacity of 1,800 tonnes of hydrogen per year – are scheduled for the end of 2027.

“We firmly believe that LOHC technology will continue to be indispensable for the necessary decarbonisation of industry and energy transition," said co-founder and chairman Daniel Teichmann.

Brineworks

Founding year: 2023.

Founders: Gudfinnur Sveinsson, Joseph Perryman.

Latest funding: €2m in early-stage VC, 2024.

Backed by, among others, Impact Loop favourite Pale Blue Dot, Amsterdam-based Brineworks rounds out our list of hydrogen innovation with a truly intriguing pitch.

The company use seawater – a “virtually infinite source of hydrogen” according to their website - for its electrolysis. The added benefit which really grabs the eye is that the process, which removes C02 from the ocean, then leads to the ocean sucking more carbon out of the air to regain equilibrium.

The EU has taken notice, welcoming Brineworks into the prestigious European Innovation Council Accelerator in 2025.