It’s not going to be batteries or hydrogen, it’s both. Hydrogen is the lightest, most plentiful element in the universe, offering endlessly reusable & scalable energy storage. The Hydrogen Council forecasts that by 2050, hydrogen will power up to 20m trucks and 5m buses. 

So, hydrogen is critical to sustainable transportation, but existing hydrogen powertrains do not enable viable transport solutions. A lack of enabling technologies makes current solutions inadequate due to very high weight and size, ruining the unit economics of operating vehicles.

A hydrogen fuel cell long-haul truck, for example, typically uses 800kg of batteries and hydrogen storage tanks 4 times the volume of gasoline tanks for equivalent range. As a result, significantly less load can be carried on each truck.

Viritech supplies the key enabling technologies to make a hydrogen powertrain lightweight and space-efficient. These Formula-1 derived technologies eliminate the penalties of existing solutions to provide viable unit economics for operators. 

Viritech-enabled hydrogen trucks, for example, have equivalent payload to diesel trucks. These dramatic improvements are a result of its power electronics products, which enable battery size (and weight) to reduce by 90% compared to battery electric vehicles, and its hydrogen storage product, which incorporates a hydrogen pressure vessel as a structural element of the chassis, saving space on the vehicles.

The result of this solution? A viable zero-emissions future for heavy transport and applications where payload or power-to-weight is critical (such as heavy trucks).

• Ford, BP and Ocado - global OEM, global energy company and major retailer. £16m government-grant funded project to trial hydrogen version of the Ford Transit, the UK's best selling vehicle, with Viritech providing key technologies
• Anand Group - major Tier-1 automotive manufacturer in India. Partnership to establish a JV in India which license Viritech technology for Indian, ASEAN and SAARC markets
• Linamar - second largest Tier-1 manufacturer in Canada and supplier of Ford, GM and Stellantis. Partnership for Linamar to license and manufacture Viritech's power electronics technologies
• Horiba MIRA - major UK automotive consultancy. Partnership to develop a hydrogen truck which will demonstrate Viritech's products, £3m government-grant funded project
• Intelligent Energy - UK fuel cell manufacturer. Providing fuel cell for MIRA truck project
• Lola Cars - UK motorsports manufacturer. Working with Viritech on high-performance technologies for hydrogen motorsports applications
• Haydale - leading functionalisation of graphene, UK. Collaborating with Viritech on an advanced material for Viritech's hydrogen pressure vessel product

Viritech's products are the key enabling technologies between a hydrogen fuel cell and electric motor. 

In traditional internal combustion vehicles, an engine produces power for the wheels - there is just one energy vector. On hydrogen vehicles, however, energy can be drawn from a fuel cell, battery or recaptured under braking - three energy vectors. The cost of mismanaging or poor optimisation of this energy management results in heavier vehicles, reduced range and inefficient use of our world's scarce resources.

Viritech's products are therefore focussed on managing energy on vehicle in the most optimised way. This includes highly response hardware and advanced software to manage the hardware, namely:

• DC-DC converter: a component used to convert voltage level from one level to another. Viritech's main competitor requires two DC-DCs, one for the fuel cell and one for the e-motor, each costing c.£25,000. Our converter can manage both from a single unit with a target cost of £5,000.

• Energy management software: in order to closely manage on vehicle power as described above, very fast response capability is required from the hardware (delivered by Viritech's DC-DC and battery management system), but software is required to operate the hardware to its full capability. Viritech's software optimises energy management between the fuel cell, battery and energy recapture using high-speed monitoring and predictive analytics

• Battery packs: at the moment, most hydrogen fuel cell vehicles still use very heavy batteries. Viritech's battery technology is instead optimised for performance, i.e. rapidly delivering (and recapturing power). As a result, Viritech's battery packs are much smaller (up to 85% relative to some fuel cell vehicles) and consequently much lighter (4.5T less than in a battery electric truck), rapidly discharging power for the short periods needed. Having high performance batteries also means that a vehicle can recapture significantly more braking energy
• Pressure vessels: Hydrogen is the smallest element in the universe so preventing leakage requires thick vessels which are often heavy. In gaseous form, even when compressed to 350 or 700 bar on vehicle, it also takes up quite a lot of space - you need c.4 times as much volume to store the same amount of hydrogen on vehicle as gasoline for equivalent range. Using advanced materials, Viritech is not only able to drive weight out of the pressure vessels themselves, but its technology also allows them to be incorporated to the structure of the chassis. This means overall chassis weight is reduced, and the volume problem is somewhat solved, because the vessels can fit into spaces already used for chassis members (e.g. the rear bulkhead)

With protected intellectual property, technologies working on its test vehicles, its first market-ready products and pipeline of opportunities with some of the largest incumbent players in the industry (including on the hydrogen Ford transit van - the UK's best-selling commercial vehicle), Viritech is poised to begin scaling its revenues.

These principles of high efficiency, lightweight powertrain technologies apply to multiple sectors and for this reason Viritech's technology is designed to be modular and scalable.

Therefore, though Viritech is focussed on the automotive sector at present, the application of its technologies to aviation, marine and distributed power industries make for an enormous market opportunity (TAM is £460bn). 

VC: Energy Revolution Ventures, Arosa Capital

Strategic: 1 investor (confidential)

HNWs and founders: various (confidential)

Crowdcube: nominee

Full cap table available upon request and post NDA

In response to industry interest, Viritech has accelerated its growth plan - it's now been awarded six UK government-backed grants so far, gained the backing of 2 cleantech-specialist VCs, and secured a series of major partnerships. 

Consequently, Viritech is raising £2m of equity capital, in addition to £2.6m of committed, non-dilutive UK grant funding. These funds will be used to:

• Develop its technologies into market-ready products
• Demonstrate products in vehicle trials with partners, including OEMs and Tier-1s
• Grow revenues to £1m in 2024 and £4m in 2025

• Timothy Lyons - CEO, Founder, Board - Investment banker turned serial entrepreneur. Founded and exited 2 Fintech companies, £10m and £100m exits
• Matt Faulks - CTO, Co-founder - Ex-F1 and performance road car engineer. Founded and exited company specialising in high-performance automotive projects 
• Ben Reid - NED - Experienced founder and CEO, with an exceptional record as an early-stage, disruptive business strategist  
• Till Bechstolsheimer - NED - Co-Founder, CEO and Portfolio Manager at Arosa Capital Management. Ex-UBS Private Equity and Hedge Fund covering energy sector 
• Phil Wild - Advisor, Corporate Strategy and Scale Up - 30+ years experience leading advanced materials and technology businesses, including as CEO of AIM-listed James Cropper plc delivering 6X growth in 10 years. Phil is expected to join Viritech as CEO post capital raise 
• Dr Faye Smith OBE - Advisor, Composite Materials - Over the last 10 years, Faye has helped shape the UK’s national composites strategy and many businesses develop their technology and commercial relationships
• Joe Ritblat - Director of Finance - Ex-management consultant with VC investment experience, Joe is responsible for finance and corporate development 
• Simon Willis - Director of Operations - 20 years engineering experience in automotive, with a strong track-record of bringing projects in on time and on budget 
•  Chris Hubel - Head of Engineering - 5 years with Ginetta cars leading the team designing and supporting LMP1, LMP3 and road cars. Prior to this he worked for 16 years in aerospace engineering at BAE Systems and Safran  
• Jay Nagley - VP Strategic Relationships - 25 year car industry veteran, Jay has advised leading car manufacturers on market and product development. He has worked with the Department for Trade as an automotive R&D specialist, regularly appearing on BBC as an industry commentator.

Viritech is targeting a £100m+ public listing on a North American Stock Exchange (New York or Toronto).

Drawing on comparable public businesses, such as Ceres Power, the following pillars are seen as necessary in achieving a successful liquidity event:

• Revenues exceeding £5m (Ceres trades on 20-30X revenue)
• Differentiated, quality products supported by a strong intellectual property portfolio
• Demonstrable dominance in the markets it serves, supported by partnerships with major OEMs and Tier-1s
• A strong future growth path to achieve £100m revenue by 2030

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