Tallinn-based PowerUP Energy Technologies has closed a €10 million Sequence A funding spherical to speed up the manufacturing and commercialisation of its hydrogen-powered electrical turbines.
The funding, co-led by dual-use enterprise corporations Mercaton and ScaleWolf and joined by Estonia’s SmartCap Inexperienced Fund (funded by the European Union’s NextGenerationEU).
“PowerUP was based on a transparent mission: to ship clear, dependable vitality options. Whereas different applied sciences are nonetheless being examined in labs, ours has already been battle-tested on the entrance traces in Ukraine. That is the very definition of dual-use innovation: a CleanTech answer that has been cast and validated by the pressing wants of protection,” says Ivar Kruusenberg, founder and CEO of PowerUP Vitality Applied sciences. “This capital will instantly enable us to broaden our community of resellers, distributors and companions in protection and within the business sector.”
In the identical or adjoining phase, 2025 sector exercise contains Estonia’s Galtec, which secured €1 million in pre-Seed funding to advance micro-tubular solid-oxide gas cells for drones and IoT units.
With each corporations situated in Estonia, the info suggests a concentrated cluster of early-stage fuel-cell innovation rising within the Baltic area. In opposition to this backdrop, PowerUP’s €10 million spherical stands out for its scale and emphasis on manufacturing and business deployment, in contrast with the extra research-oriented funding seen elsewhere within the sector.
“At ScaleWolf, we worth applied sciences that strengthen safety and resilience the place it issues most. PowerUP has proven that its techniques can ship reliable energy in demanding environments, supporting each defence missions and important civilian operations. We’re proud to again a workforce that turns confirmed efficiency into significant dual-use functionality,” provides Dave Harden, Accomplice at ScaleWolf.
PowerUP Vitality Applied sciences, based in 2016, develops and manufactures versatile, modular hydrogen gas cell options for a variety of purposes, starting from defence to industrial, and off-grid sectors. PowerUP’s turbines reportedly provide silent, emission-free operation, making them fitted to delicate navy ahead working items and important civilian infrastructure.
The twin-use nature of the expertise signifies that PowerUP’s options, first engineered for area missions with the European House Company, translate on to the calls for of defence – equivalent to vitality independence and distant use.
The €10 million injection can be deployed to satisfy rising demand from each sectors:
- Business Growth: Increasing gross sales and technical assist groups to enter new business markets, specializing in backup energy for essential infrastructure.
- Worldwide Footprint: Establishing strategic gross sales and assist hubs in core goal markets (e.g., Central Europe and North America) to localise service and capitalise on rising worldwide curiosity in resilient vitality options.
- R&D: Accelerating the event of higher-density gas cell fashions tailor-made for various energy necessities.
“PowerUP is a good instance of a broadly relevant inexperienced expertise firm that may seize the altering market alternatives of inexperienced transition and shortly handle new market wants in defence. PowerUP develops and manufactures hydrogen gas cell turbines as most important or backup energy, or as battery extenders, for dependable, sustainable vitality.
“This has additionally turned to be a essential expertise for contemporary defence and safety purposes, like enabling superior communication networks and surveillance techniques with low noise, vibration, and warmth signature, the place the selection of tech is pushed at first by reliability and efficiency fairly than local weather goals,” mentioned Sille Pettai, Managing Director of SmartCap.

