The Venture Codex

Participated · Series A · Oct 2024

California Catalysts (Calicat) develops advanced materials and stack components to lower the cost of hydrogen production, focusing on non-iridium electrocatalysts and porous transport layer coatings for PEM electrolysis cells. The company combines proprietary cascading AI models with high-throughput physical testing to accelerate electrocatalyst discovery and evaluation, achieving progress on a weekly cadence. Calicat was spun out of Caltech four years ago to commercialize $120M of DOE-funded JCAP research and has established partnerships with SoCal Gas, Tokyo Gas (via Acario), and DeNora. Leadership changed in January when early investor and board member Jourdan Urbach became CEO to speed translation of R&D into products. The company says its products immediately lower levelized cost of hydrogen (LCOH) by reducing OpEx and enabling greater CapEx amortization. Calicat is deploying recent funds toward productization of its non-iridium catalysts and coatings for electrolyzer OEMs, producers, and operators, and is based in Chatsworth, Calif. H2U develops catalysts to initiate and accelerate the electrolysis of water and produces a grid-scale PEM electrolyzer called the Gramme 50. Its technology is rooted in ten years of R&D funded by the U.S. Department of Energy through Caltech’s Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis. Led by CEO Mark McGough and based in Chatsworth, CA, the company is advancing commercial electrolyzer designs. H2U intends to use the new funding to advance its electrolyzer designs and to commission buildout of its proprietary Catalyst Discovery Engine (CDE). It has a strategic partnership with SoCalGas to pilot the Gramme 50 as SoCalGas plans to replace up to 25% of natural gas with clean hydrogen, a shift that could require 10–20 GW of electrolysis capacity.