Hydrogen and Electrification: Founders Future’s Perspective on Decarbonization Opportunities
At Founders Future, we don’t just follow the transition to clean energy—we aim to shape it. Our role as a VC is to identify the transformative companies that can accelerate this shift and create lasting value. In this context, electrification and hydrogen are not abstract concepts—they’re twin forces that will redefine industries.
Electrification: Scaling What Works
Why It Matters
Where We See Opportunity:
Beyond Generation
Companies like Bohr Énergie are enabling distributed renewable energy through Virtual Power Plants (VPPs), aggregating small producers and improving their market power.
Charging Beyond Hardware
Daze exemplifies how software-driven solutions can differentiate in the crowded EV charging space. It’s not just about the charging station—it’s about data, user experience, and integration into smart energy management.
Commercial Electrification
Tilt is leveraging AI to help businesses optimize their energy usage, moving beyond efficiency to proactive demand management that turns a cost center into a profit opportunity.
What’s Missing
Charging networks and connected devices often remain fragmented, preventing widespread optimization.
Power grids were not designed for the surges caused by EVs and intermittent renewables, creating a growing market for smart balancing solutions.
Dependence on non-EU battery manufacturers highlights the need for new entrants in materials innovation.
Hydrogen: Betting on Long-Term Potential
Where electrification stops, hydrogen begins. Hard-to-abate sectors like aviation, shipping, and heavy industry need a solution that provides energy density and flexibility that batteries can’t. Hydrogen fills that role.
Still costly and largely dependent on carbon-intensive production (grey hydrogen). But with strong public investments—like the EU’s €9 billion hydrogen plan—and innovations in electrolysis, we’re seeing green hydrogen startups emerge with viable roadmaps.
The Game Changers
While hydrogen planes remain a moonshot, sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs) produced with green hydrogen are already transforming aviation’s roadmap.
The shipping industry is still hedging its bets—testing e-methanol, ammonia, and hydrogen fuel cells. We believe dual-fuel strategies will dominate in the short term.
Hydrogen’s potential as a long-duration storage solution is increasingly attractive as grid-scale lithium-ion batteries remain costly and limited in duration.
What to Watch
Green hydrogen needs to reach cost parity with grey hydrogen—a challenge reliant on scaling renewables and driving down electrolyzer costs.
Infrastructure must grow alongside demand. Without more hydrogen refueling stations and industrial users, investors risk backing stranded assets.
Hydrogen supply chains could become as strategic as oil pipelines once were. The risk of overreliance on imports for electrolyzers and critical minerals is real.
What We’re Backing
We invest in Climate Tech companies that go beyond incremental improvements—they build the future of energy. Our thesis spans:
Software-first solutions that improve energy management, optimize consumption, and enable market participation. Companies like Bohr Énergie demonstrate how energy data and aggregation can unlock efficiencies for distributed energy.
Companies developing the hardware and ecosystems for large-scale decarbonization (e.g., electrolyzers, grid resilience tools). Moonwatt, for instance, is at the forefront of innovating infrastructure to enhance energy systems.
Startups like Beev that combine services (leasing, charging station installation, fleet management) to drive mass adoption by solving multiple pain points.
Balancing Urgency and Ambition
We don’t see electrification and hydrogen as competing pathways but as complementary tools in the decarbonization toolbox. Electrification is the near-term growth story, already ripe with scalable solutions. Hydrogen, on the other hand, is a long-term bet—one that will require patient capital, regulatory alignment, and sustained innovation.
Founders Future’s role is to support the entrepreneurs who understand these nuances—those who see regulation as an enabler, not a hurdle, and who are ready to turn systemic challenges into commercial opportunities. The next decade is pivotal. By backing the right solutions today, we can help build the energy system of tomorrow.
