Northstar Ventures has announced a £300,000 investment from the new North East Spinout Inspire Fund into H2CHP, a pioneering cleantech company and a spinout of Durham
University.

The commitment forms part of a round of £1.5m alongside £500,000 from Blackfinch Ventures and £700,000 of grant funding from Innovate UK’s investor partnership programme to develop a linear electric generator that does not utilise permanent magnets and rare-earth materials, which will help remove a significant supply-chain risk.

H2CHP is developing next-generation distributed electric generators for use in data centres, ports, construction, backup power, and microgrid deployment. Its fuel-flexible technology, which means the high-efficiency generators can be run on hydrogen, ammonia, biofuels and e-fuels, helps mitigate supply-chain risk, cut carbon emissions and improve performance.

The company aims to disrupt the multibillion-dollar global generator market, aided by rising pressure to reduce emissions and persistent grid reliability challenges.