CellEra, which develops low-cost, platinum-free membrane fuel cells, has declared a funding round worth $9.2 million headed by Vodafone Group’s capital arm, Voadfone Ventures, and Carmel Ventures, a top-tier venture capital firm based in Israel.
CellEra's Platinum-Free Membrane Fuel Cell Stack
Voadfone Ventures and Carmel Ventures have also partnered with Israel Cleantech Ventures, CellEra’s largest shareholder and a major venture capital fund with investments in the promising clean-tech companies in Israel, as well as private investors and B-2-V partners.
Carmel Ventures’ General Partner, Ori Bendori, who is now a board member of CellEra, stated that CellEra is the company’s maiden investment in the renewable energy field. The company is happy to partner with Vodafone Ventures and other current investors, he said. The company brings to CellEra its extensive experience and global ecosystem in the telecommunications market, which is the target market of CellEra, he added.
The Chief Executive Officer at CellEra, Ziv Gottesfeld, stated that Vodafone’s investment will help the company to market its cost-saving fuel cell technology to meet the demand from the telecommunication operators worldwide. He added that although fuel cells have been considered as a dependable source for producing clean power that enables mobile network operators to decrease the end-of-life risks and emissions, their widespread acceptance has been affected so far by their higher costs.
Gottesfeld further said that the company’s aim is to significantly decrease these expenditures and make a quick profit on investment via the production and commercialization of a new type of fuel cell technology by eliminating the use of high-cost hardware and materials in the fuel cell stack.