The EIC-funded company closed 2020 with a €5M equity round led by AP Ventures and Evonik Venture Capital. Based in Copenhagen, Denmark, HPNow is expanding its portfolio with solutions for agriculture, industrial and municipal water treatment.
Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is one of the world’s most widely used chemicals, with applications ranging from agriculture, municipal and industrial wastewater treatment, to healthcare and electronics. It is highly effective against a wide range of pathogens, including SARS-CoV-2 (cause of COVID-19), as well as in facilitating the breakdown of human-generated pollutants. While H2O2 itself is “green” – decomposing to pure water and oxygen – today’s supply chain is far from it. The global consumption of over 6.5M tons is produced in centralized chemical plants, emitting greenhouse gasses (GHG) equivalent to 3M cars’ emissions, and outputting over 60M Tons/annum of toxic waste. The numbers increased with the COVID-19 outbreak, and the market needs an eco-friendly alternative solution urgently.
With its breakthrough technology, HPNow enables the safe and efficient generation of ultra-high-purity peroxide directly where and when it is required and using only water, air and electricity as inputs. HPNow’s solutions altogether bypass present-day chemical supply chains and secure the availability of a powerful oxidation and disinfection agent, highly effective against COVID-19, to clinics, hospitals and first responders. Following utilization, the hydrogen peroxide generated by HPNow’s systems breaks down to pure water and oxygen, and the process emits no greenhouse gasses or other waste.
“The push towards a more sustainable, safer and carbon-neutral future, as well as towards reduced supply-chain dependence as a result of COVID-19, is driving strong demand for our autonomous and clean hydrogen peroxide generation products”, noted Ziv Gottesfeld, HPNow’s CEO.
Evonik already made two investments in the Copenhagen-based SME through its venture capital unit. The first investment was in early 2017 and was part of the first financing round of the startup. The new equity round of €5M was led together with the London-based venture capital firm AP Ventures to support the company's new technology. HPNow wants to improve public health, water safety, and climate action with an eco-friendly, zero-emission and zero-waste distributed generation process of hydrogen peroxide.
“This patented technology offers the possibility of a demand-oriented and cost-efficient supply of hydrogen peroxide directly to the customer,” said Michael Traexler, Head of the Active Oxygens business line at Evonik. “This investment supports our strategy of offering our customers customized system solutions.”
Recently, the EIC-funded startup also entered into a partnership with BSH Electrodomesticos, which produces Bosch and Siemens dishwashers. The technology should make it possible to reduce cleaning times by half and make the appliances more convenient and sustainable.
“Our products have already been commercially proven in the agriculture segment. The fresh funding and ongoing support from top-tier global investors will enable us to scale-up and expand our offerings towards new and exciting market segments, with chemical-input-free industrial and municipal water treatment next in line”, added Ziv Gottesfeld.
This year, the Danish company also received a grant of almost €1.8 million from the European Innovation Council (EIC). In 2020, the EIC launched a new call focused on innovative solutions to help fight COVID-19 and HPNow was one of the 36 companies selected for funding, out of 1,400 applicants. The new amount follows the EIC Phase 2 Grant received in 2017 under the project HPGen.
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DISCLAIMER: This information is provided in the interest of knowledge sharing and should not be interpreted as the official view of the European Commission, or any other organisation.