The EU rushes to build its global leadership in green hydrogen and companies are rapidly switching to renewable energy. To generate hydrogen, they now build electrolyzers which use noble metals and extremely expensive materials. Apart from the cost, there are two problems: insufficient robustness due to high corrosion, and limited amount of the resources.
Naco Technologies is on a mission to empower this shift by providing a full spectrum from nano-coating solutions to manufacturing of coated components for electrolyzers and fuel cells.
Naco has a unique and hard-to-copy solution that is designed in a way that it uses 10 times fewer amounts of materials, decreasing the electrolyzer and fuel cell stack cost by 30-50%. Equipment based on the Naco designed magnetron system is also more compact and productive if compared to similar competitive solutions.
Oskar Stachowiak, MP at the Untitled Ventures:
"As the world looks to move towards a low-carbon future, hydrogen is now seeing increasing interest from companies and governments alike. Naco is an incredible example of a startup company that has a unique deeptech solution for a growing industry, a working prototype, leading companies in its clients' list – all those indicators we are looking for as a deeptech early stage VC."
Naco has already developed new material solutions for 12 corporations from the EU, Asia and North America, with key players of Green Hydrogen market like Siemens Energy, Hyundai and Plug Power among them. The companies report higher productivity due to high coating process speed and lower coating cost per unit and lower equipment investment cost.
Naco has just received 1.5M euro in fresh funding that will be used for building a manufacturing station in Latvia to provide its clients with ready-to-use coated parts. Next, Naco plans to attract further investments and public money for building stations closer to clients’ factories.
The Untitled Ventures led the seed round, with participation from Buildit Accelerator and others.
Konstantin Siniushin, MP at the Untitled Ventures:
"In my first education, I have a master's degree in plasma technology, and one day five years ago, we talked with my classmate, also a venture investor, about how sad it is that there are no startups in our field. And suddenly last year there was a breakthrough of deeptech startups: water plasma disinfection, orbital space ion engines, thermoelectric energy conversion in a radioisotope source, space weather forecasting, and many others.
Each of them was decent in its own way and we are looking closely at their development. And today we are announcing an investment in the Riga-based startup Naco, the world champion in precision plasma spraying, which has not only developed a unique technological installation, but also found for it a unique scope for creating a catalytic layer of platinum on electrodes for hydrogen energy, as well as a unique business model for the supply of finished products under a subscription. We believe in the rapid development of hydrogen energy and the place of the Naco startup in the emerging global market.”
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