H2 Carbon Zero (Umagine Hydrogen), a deep-tech manufacturer of modular, stackable fuel-cell systems for stationary power generation, has raised $850,000 in its seed funding round led by Venture Catalysts, an early-stage investor and integrated incubator. The round also saw participation from Faad Networks.
The funds raised will be used to build a gigawatt-scale factory, expand its engineering and operations teams, and complete field trials with early anchor customers in telecom, construction and defence.
Founded in 2019 by Santosh Gurunath and Laxmikant Banjarey, H2 Carbon Zero designs and manufactures fuel cell systems ranging from sub-kilowatt modules for defence equipment to multi-megawatt blocks for grid-scale, long-duration storage.
The company’s proprietary system architecture allows customers to integrate hydrogen, battery and solar assets in plug-and-play fashion, slashing installation times and total cost of ownership.
Santosh Gurunath from Umagine Hydrogen said, “We are thrilled to embark on the next phase of our journey with the support of Venture Catalysts and Faad Networks. As societal and regulatory forces converge on the need for clean backup and off-grid power, we will double down on deploying hydrogen fuel cells across diverse applications with a singular goal: to make the diesel generator obsolete within a few years. The capital raised enables us to begin site work on our gigawatt facility, expand our engineering and operations teams, and complete field trials with early anchor customers in telecom, construction and defence.”
Apoorva Ranjan Sharma from Venture Catalysts said, “Clean, dispatchable power is the last missing piece of India’s renewable-energy puzzle. H2 Carbon Zero’s 100% indigenous technology converts green hydrogen into electricity while emitting nothing but water, giving businesses the reliability of diesel without the carbon, the noise, or the particulate pollution. We are backing this team because they combine world-class electrochemistry with frugal Indian engineering, allowing us to address a US$1.5 billion domestic market and a US$25 billion global opportunity with price points that can compete head-to-head with fossil fuels. By catalysing their growth at the seed stage, we intend to anchor India’s leadership in the rapidly expanding green-hydrogen economy, which analysts project to scale thirty-fold this decade.”
