Clean Hydrogen Investment Fund 'FiveT Hydrogen' (FiveT) has received publicly announced investment intentions of €290 million and is dedicated to delivering clean hydrogen infrastructure projects at scale and are expected to play a major role in the decarbonisation of the global economy.

The Fund has already received combined commitments and intentions of €260 million from Plug Power, Chart Industries and Baker Hughes. In addition, Francisco Fernandez, an accomplished serial entrepreneur, founder and former CEO of Avaloq, and a shareholder and member of the Board of Directors of FiveT Capital, is committing €30 million.

A team of world class hydrogen and financial executives, led by former Vice President of Air Liquide’s Hydrogen Energy Activities and Co-Secretary of the Hydrogen Council Pierre-Etienne Franc, has launched FiveT Hydrogen Fund (FiveT).

FiveT Hydrogen’s management team has deep hydrogen exposure, expertise and networks established over 30 years of building and operating in the industry. It expects to add further financial and industry expertise in due course.

The Fund’s first closing is expected in the fourth quarter of 2021, with first cash contributed by investors by early 2022 and drawn as required for investment over several years.

The Euro-denominated Fund, offered only to qualifying and verified investors, intends to raise a total of €1 billion from a combination of financial and industrial investors. It will make largely minority co-investments into greenfield projects with key industrial players.

The Fund expects to act as a catalyst by investing in upstream and downstream opportunities across the value chain, including green hydrogen production and use and downstream distribution assets to the transport segment and associated fleet development schemes.

Pierre-Etienne Franc, Co-founder and CEO, FiveT Hydrogen said, “We firmly believe that clean hydrogen, an energy carrier created from low-carbon sources, will help transform and decarbonise the world’s economy, addressing the global climate emergency and making a positive change to our planet for future generations. The Fund will serve as a catalyst for both the financing and building of global hydrogen infrastructure projects. We believe it creates the right investment platform to support existing and future hydrogen initiatives.”

There is a growing focus from global policy makers on the urgent need to decarbonise. More than 30 governments around the world have already adopted national hydrogen strategies as part of their climate plans so the opportunity is huge.

$70 billion of public funding has been pledged to accelerate hydrogen scale-up. Accelerating the build-out of hydrogen infrastructure will radically improve national and corporate abilities to meet net zero and decarbonisation targets. These ambitions are also driving demand from institutional investors for exposure to cleaner energy sources in line with the Paris Agreement, which will have a lasting impact on the environment, society and businesses, contributing to the ESG imperatives of their respective investment portfolios.

FiveT Hydrogen will finance large projects in the production, storage and distribution of clean hydrogen primarily in OECD countries and those with supportive policies, regulations and financial schemes in place enabling projects to be scaled profitably.