General Index has completed a £9.5 million Series A funding round which it says will accelerate the energy transition to hydrogen and biofuels.
Investment firm 20VC – chaired by Harry Stebbings – led the funding round, with follow-on investment from Chalfen Ventures, and from 20 other individual investors bringing expertise across technology, DeFi, blockchain, trading energy and disruptive information businesses.
The round will allow it to continue building more accessible commodity prices to ensure better management of the world’s resources.
Since the previous investment round in 2021, GX says it has grown substantially, aggregating trade data from over 150 data partners to produce 2,600 energy prices. Its 45+ strong team is now established across offices in London, Krakow, Singapore and Houston.
Notably in 2023, it was chosen to provide the settlement price for three new trading instruments on the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) – for new grades of gasoline blended with biofuels. It was also selected to power and expand Bloomberg’s BOIL energy coverage, available on terminals and via data feeds.
GX will use the funding to expand its line-up of energy transition prices, including biofuels, sustainable aviation fuel, hydrogen, carbon, green ammonia and green methanol.
“Energy and commodities account for around $5 trillion worth of world trade, and price benchmarks are used in the majority of those contracts,” said Neil Bradford, founder and CEO at General Index.
“Historically, these benchmarks have been created manually by journalists in traditional media organisations. The industry has found this inconsistent and expensive – often being forced to pay tens of millions of dollars for this data. This is exactly what GX is here to disrupt! We’re bringing technology to produce better benchmarks, that objectively price the world’s trade.
“We are excited to work with 20VC alongside Chalfen Ventures to accelerate our expansion into the energy transition as these markets mature into tradable commodities.”
Stebbings, founder at 20VC, added: “Very few companies have the opportunity to truly redefine a market.
“General Index has that opportunity; a pricing business to price the world. This is what venture capital is about.”
Amplifi Capital secures £22.5m to drive growth of Reevo Money