RIFT raises € 113.8 milliones

RIFT is on fire!🔥 They’ve just raised €𝟭𝟭𝟯.𝟴 𝗺𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻 to build the world’s first commercial iron fuel plant. That makes this one of the largest rounds for a European hardware cleantech company at this stage. 

As RIFT’s first investor back in 2022 when they were still at the University, we’ve seen this team tackle one of the toughest problems in the energy transition: industrial heat. Factories need enormous amounts of it for food processing, chemicals and building materials, and it still comes almost entirely from gas. Electric alternatives often can’t handle the temperatures, and the grid is already at capacity. 

This financing takes RIFT from pilot to commercial scale. The first plant alone will deliver 340 GWh of clean industrial heat per year, the equivalent of the energy use of over 25,000 households. 

The €83.1 million Series B was led by pension investor PGGM, with participation from Invest-NL, Oost NL, Brabantse Ontwikkelings Maatschappij (BOM), Energietransitiefonds Rotterdam (ETFR), and of course us. RIFT also secured €30.7 million from the European Investment Fund (EIF). 

“Our conviction has only grown stronger,” says our partner Helmer Schukken. “Without a solution like RIFT’s, getting energy-intensive industry off gas remains an enormous challenge. They offer a concrete, circular, scalable and price competitive alternative, without putting extra pressure on the grid.” 

Congrats Mark Verhagen and the RIFT team. From early pilot to the largest cleantech rounds in Europe, this is what backing bold founders looks like. We can’t wait to see the first plant go live 🔥