Mantle8, a Grenoble, France-based pure hydrogen exploration firm, has raised €31 million in Collection A funding. This spherical brings the corporate’s whole funding to €37 million (US$44 million).
The spherical was led by Sandwater and contains Breakthrough Power Ventures, Ecotechnologies 2 fund managed on behalf of the French authorities by Bpifrance, IP Group, Wind Capital and Calderion (an Audacia-backed funding platform).
Emmanuel Masini, founder and CEO of Mantle8, mentioned, “This elevate displays the rising conviction amongst main clear tech buyers that pure hydrogen is a useful resource price pursuing at scale. The existence of pure hydrogen is a well-established scientific reality; the problem has been discovering free fuel accumulations of high-purity hydrogen which are commercially viable. I’m proud that we’ve constructed and patented a complete know-how stack to reply this important problem, assembly the expectations of our present shareholders.
“The subsequent steps are to determine the prospects in our pipeline that meet our industrial hurdles and drill them. I’m excited to welcome buyers who’ve a protracted historical past of involvement in subsurface assets, sovereign investments and ecosystem constructing.”
Based in 2019 by Emmanuel Masini, Mantle8 is on a mission to provide commercially viable pure hydrogen by 2030. In accordance with the corporate, hydrogen is an important a part of our future decarbonised industrial system; nevertheless, the significance of its function will rely upon its value and origin.
Mantle8 claims that its know-how for figuring out commercially viable pure hydrogen reserves reduces exploration threat and value, with financial fashions projecting manufacturing prices as little as €0.80/kg. This considerably contributes to a a lot decrease common value of unpolluted hydrogen provide.
The corporate believes that this may essentially change the hydrogen sector’s economics and can unlock a low-carbon supply of sovereign power provide for Europe in addition to different geographies. By partnering with organisations centered on drilling and exploiting goal reservoirs, the know-how will be rolled out shortly and at scale, says Mantle8.
The corporate develops proprietary subsurface modelling and exploration applied sciences, together with HOREX®, a multiphysics platform that produces 4D photographs of lively underground hydrogen programs.
The corporate’s exploration framework, the Geological Trifecta, identifies reservoirs the place an lively hydrogen-generating supply, steady replenishment and a sufficiently sealed reservoir converge.
“Emmanuel and his staff have constructed actually proprietary exploration know-how, validated it within the area, and now have a transparent plan to maneuver into the industrial part. Pure hydrogen sits on the intersection of power transition and useful resource discovery, two areas the place Europe should lead because it seeks power sovereignty. It is a demanding problem however with the potential to create a brand new clear power supply, which is what we want and why we see in Mantle8 the chance for outsized impression and return,” mentioned Tom Even Mortensen, founder and Managing Associate of Sandwater.
The corporate plans to deploy this capital throughout the subsequent two years to fund the world’s most superior pure hydrogen exploration and drilling marketing campaign. Its know-how platform can be employed throughout its international improvement pipeline to determine and rank essentially the most promising alternatives. These websites will then be drilled to verify pure hydrogen accumulations and to guage quantity, purity, and reservoir high quality in help of commercially viable, large-scale manufacturing, states Mantle8.
“With this backing, we’ll work alongside industrial companions globally to maneuver from exploration via to industrial improvement. The subsequent two years are about proving that the lively hydrogen programs our know-how has pinpointed can ship sustained, commercially viable movement,” mentioned Bart Markus, Mantle8’s chairperson.
In 2025, the corporate raised a €3.4 million Seed spherical led by Breakthrough Power Ventures. It then went on to finish the world’s first 4D imaging of an lively underground pure hydrogen system utilizing HOREX® at its Hydrogeco undertaking within the French Pyrenees. Earlier this yr, Mantle8 acquired a €2.06 million grant from the EU Simply Transition Fund to industrialise its core exploration applied sciences.
