H2 Carbon Zero Raises $850,000 Seed Funding to Build Gigawatt-Scale Hydrogen Fuel Cell Factory

Bengaluru, 8 October 2025 — H2 Carbon Zero (Umagine Hydrogen), a deep-tech manufacturer of modular and stackable hydrogen fuel-cell systems, has secured $850,000 in seed funding led by Venture Catalysts, with participation from Faad Networks.

The company said the funds will be used to establish a gigawatt-scale manufacturing facility, expand its engineering and operations teams, and complete field trials with early anchor customers in telecom, construction, and defence sectors.

Founded in 2019 by Santosh Gurunath and Laxmikant Banjarey, H2 Carbon Zero designs and manufactures fuel-cell systems ranging from sub-kilowatt units for defence applications to multi-megawatt blocks for grid-scale energy storage. Its proprietary modular system enables the integration of hydrogen, battery, and solar assets in a plug-and-play configuration, reducing installation times and lowering total cost of ownership.

Santosh Gurunath, Co-founder of Umagine Hydrogen, said:
“We are thrilled to embark on the next phase of our journey with the support of Venture Catalysts and Faad Networks. As societal and regulatory forces converge on the need for clean backup and off-grid power, we will double down on deploying hydrogen fuel cells across diverse applications with a singular goal: to make the diesel generator obsolete within a few years. The capital raised enables us to begin site work on our gigawatt facility, expand our engineering and operations teams, and complete field trials with early anchor customers in telecom, construction and defence.”

Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, Co-founder of Venture Catalysts, commented:
“Clean, dispatchable power is the last missing piece of India’s renewable-energy puzzle. H2 Carbon Zero’s 100% indigenous technology converts green hydrogen into electricity while emitting nothing but water, giving businesses the reliability of diesel without the carbon, the noise, or the particulate pollution. We are backing this team because they combine world-class electrochemistry with frugal Indian engineering, allowing us to address a US$1.5 billion domestic market and a US$25 billion global opportunity with price points that can compete head-to-head with fossil fuels. By catalysing their growth at the seed stage, we intend to anchor India’s leadership in the rapidly expanding green-hydrogen economy, which analysts project to scale thirty-fold this decade.”

With the investment, H2 Carbon Zero plans to accelerate the commercial rollout of hydrogen fuel-cell solutions across backup power, off-grid, and industrial applications, positioning itself in a rapidly evolving market driven by India’s clean energy and decarbonisation goals.

The company’s technology aligns with India’s National Green Hydrogen Mission, which aims to make the country a global hub for green hydrogen production and export.