Baker McKenzie recently advised Hysata on its landmark Series B fundraising, raising a total of A$172 million (US$111 million) from a range of existing and new investors. This is one of the largest Series B cleantech fundraising in Australian history, and one of the larger venture capital financings in Australia in the past couple of years.
bp Ventures and Templewater led the fundraising round, with strong backing from existing major strategic and financial investors IP Group Australia, Kiko Ventures (IP Group plc’s cleantech platform), Virescent Ventures on behalf of Clean Energy Finance Corporation, Hostplus, Vestas Ventures and BlueScopeX. The round attracted new strategic and financial investors from around the world, including POSCO Holdings, POSCO E&C, IMM Investment Hong Kong, Shinhan Financial Group Co., Twin Towers Ventures, Oman Investment Authority’s VC arm IDO and TelstraSuper.
Hysata is developing new high-efficiency electrolysers that aim to produce green hydrogen at scale with higher energy efficiency and lower costs than alternative technologies. The company’s technology uses less energy to convert water to hydrogen, which is critical to bringing down the cost of green hydrogen (being hydrogen generated from the separation of water by a hydrolyser, using renewable power).
Baker McKenzie's lead partner, Liam Hickey stated: "We were delighted to act for our client, Hysata, in raising funds that will assist the company to proceed with the expansion of production capacity and the ongoing development of its innovative technology. This is a major milestone for Hysata and the green hydrogen industry in Australia."
Hysata will use the funding to expand production capacity at its iconic beachside manufacturing facility in Wollongong, New South Wales and further develop its technology as it focuses on reaching gigawatt scale manufacturing.
Baker McKenzie previously advised on Hysata's Series A and pre-Series B fundraising, together with a range of commercial matters.
The matter was led by Liam with support from a Baker McKenzie team comprising: Po Tsai, Sean Paulding, Toby Patten, Alex Hewitt, Matt Coleman, Max Dowzer-Strode, Jonathan Kelt, Erica Kidston and Ben Burke.