Hydrogen vs Carbon: Startup Universal Hydrogen by Ukrainian engineer raises $20.5M

Ukrainian engineer Pavel Eremenko founded startup Universal Hydrogen in 2020, which raised $20.5M in Series A financing a year later. Playground Global led the round, and Fortescue Future Industries, Coatue, Global Founders Capital, Plug Power, Airbus Ventures, Toyota AI Ventures, Sojitz Corporation and Future Shape also syndicated on the deal.

The startup is developing products to launch hydrogen aviation. The company is creating a hydrogen ecosystem for aviation through strategic partnerships and new hydrogen distribution technologies. For example, it plans to create its own decarbonized aircraft with 40–60 seats in partnership with Plug Power.

According to the founder and CEO of Universal Hydrogen, “hydrogen is the only real way for aviation to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement and help limit global warming”.

The company’s first product is going to be lightweight, modular capsules to transport green hydrogen, produced using renewable energy sources, into aircraft equipped with hydrogen fuel cells. The capsules will eventually be available for aircraft ranging in size from vertical take-off and landing air taxis to long-haul narrow-body aircraft.

Universal Hydrogen will use the funds raised to increase the size of its current team of around 12 people to 40 and accelerate technology development.

In a recent Quick News, we told that another entrepreneur, already from Russia, is developing hydrogen engines for aviation. Zero Avia also recently raised $24.3M in round A to develop a large 50+ seat zero-emission aircraft engine.