Reverion, a Munich-based climate tech spinout, has raised an €8.5m pre-Series A bridge round to accelerate and scale the production of its fuel cell technology and plug-and-play clean power plants.
The company previously raised a €7m seed round, and has received €12m in regional, national and European grants. It now has its sights on raising its Series A.
What does Reverion do?
Reverion is a spinout from the Technical University of Munich and was founded in 2022. It's designed fuel cell technology that converts biogas or hydrogen into electricity via an electrochemical reaction — the company says it can extract twice as much energy from biogas than the combustion-based processes currently used.
The company integrates its tech into all-in-one, plug-in modular power plants, which look like big containers and can be used by any biogas plant operator in the world — including individual farmers, energy companies and heavy industry.
Its key market is currently Germany — which is also the world's top biogas-producing country, according to the International Energy Agency — but the company hopes to start selling internationally. Its first pre-commercial unit will be put into operation this summer — its smaller, 10kW prototype unit has already been successfully operating in the field.
It currently employs 42 people, and five new hires will join in May.
Where will the money go?
Reverion plans to spend its fresh capital on expanding production of its 100kW and 500kW power plants and deliver on pre-orders currently worth €60m. The startup also wants to start producing its power plant units at scale, in order to break even.
What’s the market like?
The energy crisis and skyrocketing power prices, fuelled by the war in Ukraine and rising inflation, have turned the eyes of investors and governments to renewable energy sources and any technologies that can make them more efficient.
The EU has committed to sourcing 42.5% of its energy from renewable sources by 2030. Boosting the production of biogas, which currently makes up 0.3% of global primary energy according to the International Energy Agency, could be one of the solutions to achieve this goal.
Stephan Herrmann, Reverion’s cofounder and CEO, says that its technology allows it to meet several of the EU’s energy security and climate objectives: improving storage, increasing the use of biogas and biomethane and growing carbon storage.
“A rapid and comprehensive market entry will give Germany and the EU a competitive edge in ultra-flexible and carbon-negative energy supply," he says.
Who's investing?
- UVC Partners, an early-stage German VC
- Green Generation Fund, a German VC firm
- Extantia Capital, a German VC firm
- Doral Energy-Tech Ventures, an Israeli CVC at Doral Energy which develops renewable energy projects
- Landwärme, a German biomethane trader