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Alessandro Davide Benassi 3d

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𝐇𝐲𝐝𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐞𝐧 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓 𝐫𝐞𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐟 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐤𝐬   If you want the real signal from 2025, look at where startups still got funded and who wrote the checks.   In H1 2025, oil and gas majors more than tripled their hydrogen startup investments versus H1 2024. Overall venture funding plateaued, but strategic capital did not. That is resilience, not a boom.   What stood out for me, from a startup, VC, and ecosystem view: 1️⃣ Corporate venture leaned in. Shell Ventures, bp Ventures, Orlen, and Perenco backed rounds across electrolysis, exploration, and materials. Electrolyzer funding stayed alive. $656.7M equity over 2 years across 8 deals, with $173.3M in the last year. Median maturity: Established 2️⃣ Fuel cells found a near term buyer. Bloom Energy reported $519M Q3 2025 revenue and 30.4% gross margin, up 510 bps YoY, linked to AI data center demand 3️⃣ Natural hydrogen became a real category. $297.4M raised over 2 years across 3 deals. Koloma alone sits at $837.1M valuation and $393M raised. The market is still unforgiving. Nikola and Hyzon bankruptcies are the reminder: pilots are not orders, and scale without unit economics breaks. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝗰𝗼𝘀𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺 𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗼𝗻 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱: stop treating hydrogen as one market. Treat it like a portfolio of segments with different maturity and different risk. Electrolyzers, fuel cells, natural hydrogen, stimulated geologic hydrogen, industrial use cases like steel and SAF. Each needs a different go to market path and a different capital stack.   𝗠𝘆 𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲: where should an innovation ecosystem focus first to create real value or industrial adoption?

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