China hydrogen energy player raises $44m Series C

Other investors include Bank of Shanghai International and EBI Investment, a VC firm launched by alumni of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Existing backers GL Ventures and Everest Venture Capital re-upped.

Lightspeed China Partners led a Series B in 2021 following a round in 2019 backed by Shangqi Capital, the private equity and venture capital platform of SAIC Motor, according to AVCJ Research. The sizes of both rounds were undisclosed.

TangFeng was founded by Junliang Zhang, a professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2017. The company focuses on hydrogen-based fuel cells and aims to achieve mass production of fuel cell membrane electrodes. It claims to design membrane electrodes with in-house technologies around materials, processes, equipment, and testing.

Operations include one R&D centre and two manufacturing bases. About 2m membrane electrode units have been delivered to date, serving 6,000 fuel cell stack systems at home and abroad.

TangFeng’s products are said to have passed vehicle-standard performance and stability tests. Its latest generation of products – touted as having improved performance and lifespan – is expected to reach mass-production by 2024.

Transportation is the major usage scenario for hydrogen energy. Hydrogen vehicles have one key advantage over electric vehicles: they can operate over longer distances and are therefore seen as a better solution for intercity transport.

There were about 10,000 hydrogen vehicles in China as of July 2022. Tangfeng expects the market to expand to vehicles by 2030, pushing demand for membrane electrodes to tens of billions of renminbi.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Cleantech
• Technology
• China
• GP Capital
• Everest Capital
• GL Ventures
• automobiles
• Transportation