Freiburg/Berlin/Paris — INERATEC wins stra­te­gic inves­tors to increase produc­tion capa­city for synthe­tic fuels from CO2 and green hydro­gen into the mega­ton range. With the new share­hol­ders from the energy, avia­tion and ship­ping indus­tries, INERATEC is crea­ting the frame­work for signi­fi­cant corpo­rate growth.

The law firm Fried­rich Graf von West­pha­len & Part­ner (FGvW) advi­sed the French groups ENGIE and SAFRAN on the 20 million Euro Series A finan­cing round of Inera­tec GmbH. ENGIE and SAFRAN have each inves­ted in Inera­tec through their invest­ment compa­nies ENGIE New Ventures (ENV) and Safran Corpo­rate Ventures. In addi­tion to ENGIE and SAFRAN, five other inves­tors, inclu­ding the German MPC Group, parti­ci­pa­ted in the financing.

The finan­cing consor­tium consists of the current inves­tors High-Tech Grün­der­fonds (HTGF), Extan­tia Capi­tal, FO Holding and Planet A as well as the new part­ners Engie, Safran and MPC.

The growth capi­tal will enable Inera­tec to further expand the produc­tion of carbon-neutral synthe­tic fuels and plan a pionee­ring indus­trial plant in Frank­furt Höchst.

Inera­tec GmbH, foun­ded in 2014 out of KIT and head­quar­te­red in Karls­ruhe, is a leading manu­fac­tu­rer of modu­lar chemi­cal plants for the produc­tion of synthe­tic fuels, which are used in avia­tion, among other appli­ca­ti­ons. In addi­tion, the plants can produce synthe­tic natu­ral gas, chemi­cal feedstocks and methanol.

INERATEC has alre­ady opened the world’s largest pilot plant for the produc­tion of sustainable e‑kerosene in Emsland, Lower Saxony, in 2021. Now the company is plan­ning an indus­trial pionee­ring plant for the produc­tion of sustainable synthe­tic fuels near Frank­furt Airport start­ing in 2022. Up to 4.6 million liters of INERATEC e‑Fuels are to be produ­ced annu­ally from up to 10,000 tons of bioge­nic CO2 and rene­wa­ble elec­tri­city. The company will further expand its leading posi­tion in the field of power-to-liquid.

ENGIE, head­quar­te­red in La Défense in the French capi­tal Paris, is a listed energy group with over 150,000 employees and around 60 billion euros in annual sales. ENV is an ENGIE invest­ment fund endo­wed with 180 million euros that invests in start-ups rele­vant to the energy transition.

The Safran tech­no­logy group, also listed on the stock exch­ange and head­quar­te­red in Paris, is a leading supplier to the inter­na­tio­nal aero­space indus­try and gene­ra­tes annual sales of around 16.5 billion euros with appro­xi­m­ately 80,000 employees.

Engie and Safran were advi­sed by a cross-office M&A team of Fried­rich Graf von West­pha­len & Part­ner led by Dr. Barbara Mayer (photo). CMS was active on the oppo­site side.

Advi­sors to Engie & Safran: Fried­rich Graf von West­pha­len & Part­ner, Freiburg
Dr. Barbara Mayer, Part­ner (Lead Part­ner, Corpo­rate, M&A, Freiburg)
Chris­tian Burmeis­ter, Senior Asso­ciate (Corpo­rate, M&A, Berlin)

Advi­sors to Inera­tec: CMS, Berlin

About INERATEC

INERATEC’s tech­no­logy is making a signi­fi­cant contri­bu­tion to achie­ving the Paris climate targets by provi­ding a sustainable solu­tion for the avia­tion, marine, auto­mo­tive and chemi­cal indus­tries. Sustainable e‑fuels can defos­si­lize these sectors. To turn this vision into reality, produc­tion capa­ci­ties for CO2-neutral fuels and chemi­cals must be expan­ded rapidly.

INERATEC was awarded the Next Economy Award of the German Sustaina­bi­lity Award. The award reco­gni­zes foun­ders whose inno­va­tive busi­ness models are actively shaping the tran­si­tion to a more sustainable economy.