Cleantech startup, Newtrace raises $1M in pre-seed from Speciale Invest and Micelio Fund

The company is building next-gen electrolyzers to make affordable green hydrogen a reality.

Newtrace, a new age cleantech startup from Bengaluru, announced raising a pre seed round of $1M in funding from Speciale Invest and Micelio Fund to build the next generation of electrolyzers for making affordable green hydrogen a reality. The company also saw participation from angel investors in this round.

With the fresh infusion of funds, Newtrace plans to scale up its technology and build large scale electrolyzers starting with 1MW electrolyzers by 2025 and much larger 10MW electrolyzers by 2027, to accelerate decarbonisation of industries such as petrochemical, ammonia, mobility, energy and steel.

Founded by Prasanta Sarkar, an expert in fluid mechanics and Rochan Sinha, who has worked on developing technologies for green hydrogen generation, came together to build a prototype of an electrolyzer from first principles to reduce dependency on various critical and expensive components, membranes and materials. Newtrace was launched in 2021 with the vision to address sustainable development goals and mitigate climate change by enabling affordable green hydrogen production at scale. The founders have envisioned a world where massive adoption of green hydrogen will be possible at a cost of $1/kg  and are working relentlessly with their team to translate this into reality. Newtrace has successfully demonstrated a working prototype of its electrolyzer technology for hydrogen production at National Centre for Combustion R&D - IIT Madras. 

Commenting on the new investment, Prasanta Sarkar, Co-founder & CEO, Newtrace said, “We are humbled by the trust of our investors in us and our novel idea. Newtrace aspires to deliver innovative, reliable and 5x cheaper electrolyzers around the world. The electrolyzers have been redesigned to reduce capital and operating cost while delivering higher efficiency and performance. Our unique modular design approach and technology architecture allows us to scale massively to meet growing demand in months, rather than years. We partner with companies across sectors with focus on decarbonisation, sustainable energy and climate action. We are changing the way the world thinks about Hydrogen.”

“The need of the hour is availability of sustainable H2 sources for decarbonisation to meet Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) targets. The combination of technological improvement in stack electrochemistry, efficiency, increased hydrogen production per stack and scaling up of manufacturing every year would significantly reduce the CAPEX per kW of electrolyzer, thereby supporting massive adoption of green hydrogen at a targeted cost of $1/kg by 2027. We are signing early partnerships for pilot and commercial deployments and we are certain of success as we move ahead,” said Rochan Sinha, Co-founder & CTO, Newtrace.  

“We are exhilarated to partner with the founders of Newtrace, who are leveraging the technology, expertise and vision to develop affordable green hydrogen for the world, thus contributing to a better, greener and sustainable existence for everyone. This is our first of many to come cleantech investments and we are excited for the future ahead. I am keenly watching out for both Prasanta and Rochan to change the world," said Vishesh Rajaram, Managing Partner, Speciale Invest. 

“Hydrogen has a prominent place in the future of clean energy in India. Green hydrogen will play an important role not only in industry, but also, in mobility. Newtrace team has the most cutting-edge technology for green hydrogen production across the globe. As India's largest clean mobility fund, we are excited to support them and the future of the hydrogen economy,” said Shreyas Shibulal, Founder, Micelio Mobility.

Decarbonising our planet is one of the primary goals that countries around the world have set for 2050. To achieve this, decarbonising the production of an element like hydrogen, giving rise to green hydrogen, is one of the keys as this is currently responsible for more than 2 % of total global CO2 emissions. However, the greatest barrier to wide-spread adoption of green hydrogen is its cost which Newtrace is working towards and is leading the way here.