Koloma, which extracts naturally occurring hydrogen from underground deposits, added Khosla Ventures, Amazon and United as key backers in its biggest funding round.Koloma cofounder and CTO Tom Darrah, left, COO Carrie Hudak, cofounder and CEO Pete Johnson, and cofounder and chief business officer Paul Harraka at the company’s Denver office.Koloma, a startup aiming to lead a new industry based on extracting carbon-free hydrogen from natural underground deposits, just raised $245.
“We’re grateful to be backed by some of the world’s leading companies and investors in our recent fundraise,” Paul Harraka, Koloma’s chief business officer and cofounder, toldlast year, is commercializing extensive research by Ohio State University geologist Tom Darrah, its CTO and cofounder. He’s spent years studying where hydrogen pockets are most likely to be found and ways that techniques developed by the oil and gas industry can be leveraged to get the resource.
Hydrogen’s flexibility as an energy source — it can be used to cut carbon emissions, power vehicles and store or make electricity — makes it highly compelling. Currently, most industrial hydrogen is made by splitting it from natural gas with steam, a process that emits carbon dioxide. A new industry for carbon-free “green” hydrogen, using electrolysis to extract the element from water with electricity, is promising but a more costly option.