Location: Orleans, France

How we met: Our friends at Marble

Propeller theme: Ocean Industrials

Propeller investment stage: Seed

Vema is pioneering a novel approach to stimulated hydrogen from ample rock formations, using a novel catalyst. The impact could be the lowest cost of delivered hydrogen from subsurface sources that have multi-year continuous flows. We spent years looking for green maritime fuel companies-and were hung up on cost time and again. Cheap hydrogen feedstock is a key unlock, and Vema may have cracked it. 

• Why we love the founders – Pierre Levin and Florian Osselin are a dynamic duo. Pierre brings decades of subsurface drilling and extraction expertise and knowledge of hydrogen markets. Florian wrote the seminal paper on stimulated hydrogen and surrounded himself with a talented R&D team to pioneer the field. They are the duo to shepherd in this new technology.
• What’s novel about Vema’s tech – Working with geological hydrogen is tricky and there are different approaches to teasing out this molecule from below the surface. Vema's approach works with sources of hydrogen that are abundant and can be accessed with standard drilling equipment.
• Why we’re excited about this market – Hydrogen is the feedstock for a vast amount of transition fuels. In the relevant market we spend the most time around, maritime, the high prices of other hydrogen generation technologies have held back affordable methanol or ammonia for shippers.
• Vema's impact –  Billions of tons of hydrogen, competitively priced to, but at a fraction of the carbon footprint of industrial hydrogen

Learn more about Vema Hydrogen at https://www.vema.earth/