News
NovaMea Secures $3.2 Million USD in Seed Funding to Advance Membranes and Catalysts for Green Hydrogen Production
April 2024 - NovaMea SA, a pioneering developer of advanced membranes and catalysts for anion exchange membrane water electrolysis, announced today the successful completion of its Seed funding round, securing $3.2 million USD in investment. This round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners.
This significant milestone underscores NovaMea's commitment to enabling the green hydrogen revolution through innovation and cutting-edge technology. The funding will be instrumental in advancing the company's research and development efforts, accelerating product development, and scaling its operations.
"We are excited to announce the successful closing of our Seed funding round," said Dr. Xile Hu, Chairman of the Board and Co-founder of NovaMea. "This investment not only validates the strength of our technology but also provides us with the resources needed to further advance our mission of enabling the green hydrogen revolution."
NovaMea has made significant strides in the development of innovative membranes and catalysts for anion exchange membrane water electrolysis, an upcoming and revolutionary technology for the production of green hydrogen. NovaMea has recently successfully completed the first commercial contract with an early adopter, and the feedback from our customer on our products is extremely positive. With this new funding, the company aims to expedite the commercialization of its groundbreaking technologies and establish itself as a leader in the field of sustainable energy solutions.
NovaMea remains committed to driving innovation, delivering exceptional value to its customers, and contributing to a more sustainable future. The company looks forward to leveraging this new funding to accelerate its growth trajectory and achieve even greater milestones in the coming months and years.
About Lightspeed Venture Partners:
Lightspeed Venture Partners is a global venture capital firm that focuses on accelerating disruptive innovations and trends in the technology and healthcare sectors. With over $10 billion in committed capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners has a successful track record of backing visionary entrepreneurs and helping them build market-leading companies. The firm's portfolio includes some of the most prominent and successful companies in the world. For more information, visit Lightspeed Venture Partners website.
New European Grant
January 2024 - We have been awarded a grant from the European Unions’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program. This grant will support the scaling up of our membrane fabrication using EU’s pilot lines and test facility.
International Expansion
December 2023 - In view of the rapid growing Asia-Pacific market, we have created our first international subsidiary, NovaMea HongKong Limited.
Dr. Xingyu Wu becomes our CEO
November 2023 - We congratulate Dr. Xingyu Wu for his new role as the CEO of our company. Dr. Wu has been at first the R&D director, and then the CTO of our company. In this new role, he will oversee the management of the company.
Novamea's materials demonstrate again superior performance in a new study
November 2023 - In a paper just published by the lab of Prof. Xile Hu Xile Hu at EPFL, NovaMea's proprietary membranes, ionomers, and catalysts are key to achieving high performance and long-term stability in anion exchange membrane (AEM) water electrolysis operating in pure-water (i.e., not KOH) and with only non-PGM catalysts. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acsenergylett.3c01866 Highlights: 1 A/cm2 at 1.8 V for 600 hours; ionomers are critical; cathode loss is higher than anode loss.
Hydrogen Horizon in Tarragona
October 2023 - We had the incredible opportunity to participate in the prestigious 2023 Hydrogen Horizon event held in Tarragona. Our CTO, Xingyu Wu was invited to present on behalf of our startup, where he shared insights into our cutting-edge work in AEM membrane and AEM water electrolyzers.
The conference was a hub of innovation and collaboration, featuring enlightening talks from EU H2 grants portfolio partners, esteemed industry professionals, and dynamic energy startups. The event was much more than just presentations; it was a melting pot of ideas, interactive discussions, and knowledge exchange among brilliant minds from around the world.
At our startup, we believe in the power of hydrogen technology to revolutionize the future, and events like the Hydrogen Horizon Conference fuel our passion. The opportunity to connect with fellow pioneers, exchange ideas, and explore potential collaborations was truly inspiring.
A heartfelt thank you to the organizers and all the attendees for making this conference a resounding success. Here's to the future of clean energy, innovation, and collaborative partnerships!
Exciting News from 2023 Hydrogen Tech EXPO
With 150+ exhibitors and 10,000 attendees, the Bremen EXPO was a hub of low-carbon hydrogen innovation! In just 2 days, we connected with top suppliers and potential partners, sparking future collaborations.
Another Prestigious Academic Prize for Our Chairman
We congratulate our co-founder and chairman, Prof. Xile Hu, for winning the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC)’s IUPAC-Zhejiang NHU International Award. Established in 2019, this award is given every two years and honors advancements in Green Chemistry and their impact on human progress. The IUPAC announcement cites: “The group of Professor Xile Hu has made many outstanding scientific discoveries in the field of Green Chemistry, particularly in Green Catalysis and Green Energy. (…) Their work is not only of fundamental value but has significant potential in industrial applications. For example, a startup company, NovaMea SA, has been founded based on their work in green energy".
Here is a link to EPFL news:
https://actu.epfl.ch/news/xile-hu-wins-iupac-zhejiang-nhu-international-aw-3/
In a peer-reviewed original scientific article, the lab of Prof. Xile Hu at EPFL has reported impressive device performance of anion exchange membrane (AEM) water electrolyzers using NovaMea’s proprietary materials. Some highlights include: more than 1500 h stable operation at 10-30 kA/m2; up to 63 kA/m2 at 2 V. These performance set the records in the field.
Read the article in open access here:
NovaMea’s materials demonstrate outstanding performance
Arrival of our Principal Engineer
We are thrilled to announce that Dr. Alexander P. Muroyama will join us as a Principal Engineer on Oct 1 this year. Dr. Muroyama is currently a senior scientist supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation Ambizione Fellowship at the Paul Scherrer Institute of Switzerland. He obtained a PhD degree in mechanical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in the USA and had worked as a postdoc at the ETH Zurich. He is an expert in Mechanical, Thermal, and Electrochemical Engineering. He will lead our R&D work in electrolyzer design, prototyping, and testing.
New publication
August 2023 - NovaMea scientists have published a peer-reviewed article “Anion Exchange Membrane for Hydrogen Technologies: Challenges and Progress” in the official magazine of the Swiss Chemical Society Chimia. In this article we describe the breakthrough membrane materials that NovaMea produces. The article is invited on the occasion of Prof. Xile Hu’s winning of the 2022 Green and Sustainable Chemistry Award.
You can read it open-access here:
Hiring of our R&D Director
May 2023 - We are pleased to announce that Dr. Xingyu Wu will join our company as R&D Director. Dr. Wu received his PhD from EPFL Chemistry and is an expert in membrane technology. He will start on June 1st this year.
NovaMea received support from InnoSuisse
March 2023 - NovaMea SA is awarded a financial support from InnoSuisse, the Swiss Innovation Agency, to develop the solution to the scale up of synthesis of polymers that make up our innovative membranes.
NovaMea signed a license agreement with EPFL
February 2023 - NovaMea SA has signed a license agreement with EPFL. With this agreement NovaMea SA has acquired exclusive licenses to four breakthrough technologies in anion exchange membrane, ionomer, and water splitting catalysts from the lab of Prof. Xile Hu at EPFL. In return, EPFL has acquired the Option of shares in NovaMea SA.