Green entrepreneur Jo Bamford has joined forces with multi-family
office Vedra Partners to launch HYCAP, a hydrogen investment fund
which has set its sights on raising £1bn.
The capital, which already stands at more than £200m after the
first round of investment, will be injected largely into UK
businesses, with the focus on speeding-up green hydrogen
production and supply, creating jobs and contributing to the
Government’s Net Zero targets.
With the UK hosting COP26 in Glasgow later this year, Mr Bamford
said there was no time to wait in order to harness the appetite
of sustainably focused investors.
He believed the UK hydrogen sector would need a £1bn injection to
help it compete with other territories.
“With the Government’s relentless pursuit of Net Zero targets and
the publication of the damning IPCC report, it is our belief that
hydrogen holds the key to reducing emissions - and there is a
growing sense of urgency to act now,” he explained.
“The UK has missed the boat on batteries, a sector dominated by
China and the Far East, but we can be global leaders in the
production and supply of hydrogen - an economy said to be worth
$2.5 trillion in revenues by 2050.”
Mr Bamford said his team had already identified more than 40
firms in the hydrogen space which will be evaluated for
investment.
“We have also discovered that investors around the world match
the ambitions of global governments in wanting green-focused
funds which have a positive impact on climate change,” he added.
Mr Bamford said there were a number of key drivers for the
renewed interest in hydrogen: 70% of global GDP is linked to
hydrogen country roadmaps; membership of the Hydrogen Council has
increased almost five-fold since 2017, and the UK Government has
pledged to have 5GW of low-carbon hydrogen production by 2030.
The HYCAP founding team brings together significant hydrogen,
manufacturing, financing and fund management expertise, with
industry hires collectively having had working knowledge of more
than 150 utility-scale renewables projects in more than 12
countries.
Vedra Partners' founder Max Gottschalk, who took the Gottex
managed funds from $3million of seed capital in 1999 to a $16
billion success story eight years later, said there had already
been a great deal of interest.
“The fund will be investing across the entire value chain,
focusing on production,
manufacture and supply, in order to put the UK firmly on the map
when it comes to hydrogen,” Mr Gottschalk said.
“By striking meaningful commercial partnerships and developing
intelligent go-to-market strategies it is clear HyCap’s maiden
fund can add strategic, operational and financial value to the
ecosystem while creating entrepreneurial growth businesses.”
When fully deployed, the fund will unlock large-scale long-term
job creation and aim to save up to 25% of cities’ transport
budget.
