Kennedy Space Center based Joi Scientific has announced on Tuesday raising around $5.5 million for its Series A Round funding. The Central Florida energy startup claims discovering a new way for making hydrogen fuel from water.
Silicon Valley veteran Dean Woodman appears as the lead investor in the venture capital deal. Dean Woodman is the co-founder and seed round investor for his son Nick Woodman's sports imaging gear company, GoPro Inc. The senior Woodman has been attracted with Joi's ambitions to provide a localized source of energy, reports Orlando Sentinel while covering his interview.
Joi Scientific has developed a technology capable of converting sea water into hydrogen. The technique has been described as a process happening in nature by Traver Kennedy, CEO and founder of Joi Scientific.
Kennedy hasn't disclosed any details about the process involved in producing hydrogen. But the tech is capable of producing hydrogen on demand, reports Fortune quoting Joi Scientific CEO. The scientific company has been studying hydrogen production for years. The large funding round will help advance the product development and related commercialization. Moreover, Joi Scientific will be capable of accommodating office space in Europe and Asia by the end of this year, predicts Orlando Business Journal quoting Kennedy. If Joi's claims come true, the research firm will be able to redraw the global energy map keeping Florida as a center of innovation. Research has been concluded for decades that extracting hydrogen from water requires so much energy that it is not commercially viable. But this time Joi claims for discovering its economically feasible process. Details of the process will be shared later this year after filing patent applications. The company has already filed dozens of patents in 40 different countries. Joi Scientific is still small and hiring only for specialized positions like mechanical and electrical engineering. It has recently hired Jim Kirchoff, as VP of engineering, and Ken Harden, formerly of Sony, as VP of partnership and licensing. The research firm has been seeking $3 million to $5 million for its Series A investment round at finally oversubscribed at $5.5 million. Its subsequent round of investment may open later this year. Joi is not seeking grant though emphasizing on clean energy. However, it has notified the Department of Defense about the discovered technology and encouraged government to provide grants to the users' end.
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