Spark Cleantech has secured €30 million in Series A funding, with €17 million coming in as equity. The round was led by 360 Capital and Taranis, with additional participation from the Île-de-France Reindustrialisation Fund (operated by Innovacom) and returning investor Asterion Ventures.
The Paris-Saclay-based company is developing a process that replaces fossil fuel combustion in high-temperature industrial furnaces. Its technology offers a decarbonized alternative that remains economically competitive while requiring minimal changes to existing infrastructure.
Decarbonizing sectors like metallurgy, glassmaking, and battery production remains one of the toughest climate challenges. Traditional approaches often require massive capital investments or sacrifice economic viability. Spark Cleantech's approach targets this gap directly.
"The decarbonisation of heavy industry is one of the defining challenges of the decades ahead. But we must be candid: without economic viability, it simply will not happen. In Spark Cleantech, we found a team of entrepreneurs and industrial leaders who share this pragmatic view and who are delivering a technology that responds directly to it," said Thomas Nivard, Partner at 360 Capital.
The fresh capital will fund Spark Cleantech's transition from pilot to full-scale production. The company plans to finalize and operate its first standard production module, which will then be deployed across client sites. Part of the investment will also support the qualification of commercial carbon grades, one of the two materials generated through the pulsed plasmolysis process.
Spark Cleantech expects to add 20 new team members across commercial operations, engineering, and R&D. Initial contracts have already been signed, with commercial unit deployment planned for 2027.
"Following our seed round in the summer of 2023, we succeeded in deploying a first industrial pilot in under a year. We have validated clear market traction and assembled a world-class international team. This funding will enable the scale-up that industrial players are seeking to reduce their carbon footprint cost-effectively and to accelerate commercial deployment," said Patrick Peters, Co-Founder of Spark Cleantech.
Spark Cleantech's modules sit between a client's gas network and their industrial burners. Using pulsed plasma, the system extracts carbon from the gas before combustion, leaving only hydrogen as a clean energy source.
The extracted carbon becomes a solid nanomaterial used in polymers and battery manufacturing. This replaces petroleum-derived materials that carry a heavy carbon footprint. The result? An 85% reduction in emissions and two decarbonized outputs with four times the economic value of the original hydrocarbon input.
The technology traces its origins to Stanford University, was further developed at CentraleSupélec, and has now been industrialized in France. Modules are designed for on-site installation, producing hydrogen exactly where it's needed without transport or large-scale storage requirements.
Founded in 2022 within the laboratories of CentraleSupélec, Spark Cleantech was started by Erwan Pannier (PhD, CentraleSupélec) and Patrick Peters (former CEO, Suez BioEnergies). The duo has assembled a multidisciplinary team that includes a Nobel Prize Laureate in Physics, a former R&D Director at Aramco, and a former R&D Director at Hutchinson.
The company has raised €34 million since inception and is currently testing its technology with major clients across metallurgy, glassmaking, polymer production, and battery manufacturing.
360 Capital, the lead investor, is a European venture capital firm focused on Deep Tech, Climate Tech, and Digital-First solutions. Since 1997, it has backed over 160 startups and manages €600 million in assets.
Taranis, co-leading the round through its Taranis Carbon Ventures fund, is the investment arm of an industrial group that includes Perenco and Dixstone. The fund targets technologies accelerating the transition to a low-carbon future.
The Île-de-France Reindustrialisation Fund, operated by Innovacom (Turenne Group), supports industrial-focused startups as part of the region's "Impact 2028" strategy. Asterion Ventures, a Paris and Amsterdam-based pre-seed/seed VC, has been a long-standing supporter of Spark Cleantech.
