Munich — KEYOU, the pioneer of CO2-neutral hydro­gen mobi­lity, has closed the first part of its Series B finan­cing round with a double-digit million amount. The finan­cing round is led by DILO Arma­tu­ren und Anla­gen GmbH, which has inves­ted a large seven-figure sum in KEYOU. Other inves­tors include the Euro­pean Inno­va­tion Coun­cil (EIC), the BESTO GmbH “Family Office” of the two Swabian entre­pre­neu­rial fami­lies Beyer and Stoll (FESTO indus­trial group) and Baywo­bau, which alre­ady inves­ted in KEYOU as part of the Series A finan­cing round. The funds will prima­rily be used to build up the pioneer fleet and to adapt the KEYOU-inside system to a 40-ton semi­t­rai­ler tractor.
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Follo­wing the successful conclu­sion of the first part of the finan­cing round, the Munich-based hydro­gen expert is alre­ady in talks with other poten­tial inves­tors. The Series B round, which is expec­ted to be comple­ted by the end of the year, is expec­ted to raise a total of around EUR 35 million. KEYOU intends to use the fresh capi­tal prima­rily to drive forward the expan­sion of its pionee­ring fleet, the further deve­lo­p­ment and adapt­a­tion of the KEYOU-inside system to a 40-ton arti­cu­la­ted truck for the commer­cial roll­out of its “H2Mobility as a Service” solu­tion (H2MaaS) and the further struc­tu­ral and person­nel expan­sion of the company. DILO is not only in the role of inves­tor, but is also laun­ching its first joint project with KEYOU.

With DILO, KEYOU has gained another important stra­te­gic inves­tor. The leading gas specia­list from Bava­ria deve­lops inte­gra­ted solu­ti­ons for profes­sio­nal, emis­sion-free gas manage­ment and intends to further expand its busi­ness acti­vi­ties in the promi­sing hydro­gen segment. The coope­ra­tion between the two compa­nies is corre­spon­din­gly promi­sing. The first concrete project coope­ra­tion has alre­ady begun. KEYOU is support­ing DILO with its H2 exper­tise in the deve­lo­p­ment of a univer­sal H2 service device for work­shops that reli­e­ves employees of all hydro­gen-rela­ted work. The aim of the deve­lo­p­ment is to qualify more work­shops to work with hydro­gen vehic­les and to conti­nuously expand the H2 work­shop network in line with the incre­asing number of vehic­les and hydro­gen regions.

In future, the H2 service tool will auto­mate basic service func­tions that could previously only be carried out by speci­ally trai­ned person­nel. Details of this device will be announ­ced at a later date. At the moment, DILO and KEYOU are only announ­cing that it will be a comple­tely new device with inno­va­tive func­tions that are not yet available on the market.

The human factor was a key factor

“We are deligh­ted to have found another inves­tor in DILO who belie­ves in the future of the combus­tion engine in combi­na­tion with hydro­gen and in our approach to conver­ting exis­ting vehic­les,” says Thomas Korn, CEO and co-foun­der of KEYOU. “Another major advan­tage is DILO’s many years of exper­tise in the field of indus­trial gases, which opens up valuable synergy poten­tial for us. In addi­tion, as with all our stra­te­gic inves­tors, it was important to us that the ‘human factor’ was right. This is defi­ni­tely the case with DILO.”

“The capi­tal increase from DILO and our exis­ting inves­tors will not only enable us to enter the market smoothly, but also to scale our tech­no­logy to other engine and vehicle clas­ses. This will enable us to work the market even more inten­si­vely in the future and further expand our tech­no­logy leader­ship,” adds Olaf Berg­ner, CFO of KEYOU (photo © Keyou).

DILO is also looking forward to the colla­bo­ra­tion: “With KEYOU, we are support­ing a future-orien­ted and inno­va­tive growth company that, as a pioneer in the field of emis­sion-free hydro­gen mobi­lity, fits in perfectly with us and our motto ‘One Vision. Zero Emis­si­ons’,” says Chris­tian Schel­ler, Mana­ging Direc­tor of DILO Arma­tu­ren und Anla­gen GmbH. “We are convin­ced that hydro­gen engi­nes are an important part of the solu­tion for the mobi­lity tran­si­tion, and that prag­ma­tic solu­ti­ons that enable the rapid and econo­mical decar­bo­niza­tion of the indus­try are parti­cu­larly in demand in the commer­cial vehicle sector.”

Market entry with 18-ton trucks, 40-ton trucks in preparation

KEYOU will deli­ver its first 18-ton pioneer vehic­les to pilot custo­mers this year and thus complete its market entry. This is the first time the company intends to demons­trate the market matu­rity of its conver­sion tech­no­logy and prepare the market for further scaling.

KEYOU is alre­ady working on larger motors to address the heavy-duty segment in the near future, as this is where the company sees the grea­test poten­tial in the coming years. A look at the TCO (total cost of owner­ship) of KEYOU’s 40-ton H2 truck shows that it is signi­fi­cantly chea­per than battery and fuel cell trucks simply due to econo­mies of scale and toll exemp­ti­ons. In the medium term, it will even under­cut the TCO of conven­tio­nal 40-ton diesel trucks.

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