Ki 13 Raises $5M to Scale Biomass Electrolysis

Ki 13 has raised a $5M Seed round to build and commission its first industrial pilot plant for biomass electrolysis in West London. HICO Investment Group led the financing, with BURGEST 2007 SL, Triple Impact Ventures, GiTV, and Desai Ventures participating, alongside non-dilutive match funding from Innovate UK.

The financing moves Ki 13, formerly known as Ki Hydrogen, from laboratory validation toward an industrial system designed to produce green hydrogen and biogenic CO₂ from lignocellulosic biomass residues. These 2 inputs can account for 60% to 80% of synthetic-fuel production costs, according to the company, which makes their economics central to sustainable aviation fuel, e-methanol, and e-methane.

What Ki 13 Raised and Who Backed It

The $5M Seed announcement was published on September 2, 2026. HICO Investment Group led the round. BURGEST 2007 SL, Triple Impact Ventures, GiTV, and Desai Ventures joined the financing, while Innovate UK supplied non-dilutive match funding. The company did not disclose a valuation, ownership terms, or the split between equity capital and matched grant funding.

Ki 13 says the round fully funds its first industrial pilot plant, which the team has already been designing. The plant is expected to begin commissioning in 2027, target a technology-readiness level of TRL 6, and produce 5 tonnes of hydrogen annually. Ki 13 then intends to progress toward a commercial demonstration plant.

The company previously raised a $1.1M Pre-Seed round in November 2023. Desai Ventures and SFC Capital co-led that financing, with HICO Investment Group, G-Force, and Carbon13 participating. The new $5M round is separate and should not be combined with Innovate UK's non-dilutive match funding unless Ki 13 discloses a formal total-funding figure.

Why Ki 13 Is Producing Hydrogen and Carbon Together

Synthetic fuels need both hydrogen and a carbon source. Ki 13 argues that buying or producing those inputs separately leaves an e-fuel plant exposed to high electricity use, fragmented supply, imported fossil feedstocks, and infrastructure constraints before fuel synthesis begins.

Its process starts with lignocellulosic residues from forestry, agriculture, and industrial side streams. A mildly heated solution containing a catalyst mediator breaks down the biomass into biogenic CO₂ and hydrogen ions. The spent catalyst moves into an electrolyser, where it is regenerated and looped back into the reactor while renewable electricity produces high-purity hydrogen.

The technical distinction sits inside the electrolysis step. Conventional water electrolysis also produces oxygen, an energy-intensive output that Ki 13's process does not need. Ki 13 reports laboratory performance of approximately 25 kWh of electricity per kilogram of hydrogen and 0.3 MWh per tonne of biogenic CO₂. The company compares that with about 50 kWh per kilogram for water electrolysis and up to 3 MWh per tonne for direct air capture.

Those comparisons are company-reported. They do not yet establish industrial uptime, maintenance cost, catalyst life, feedstock-handling expense, delivered product cost, or performance across variable biomass inputs.

The People Moving the Process Into a Pilot

Ki 13 began in 2022 through the Carbon13 Venture Builder. Koji Muto, Michael Stanton, and Carl Banbury co-founded the business after meeting in the program. Banbury stepped down as director and COO during the summer of 2026, according to a company update.

Muto remains co-founder and CEO. Ki 13 says his earlier work included hydrogen-project development at ExxonMobil and operating roles at nuclear and direct-air-capture startups. The company's current website lists Stanton as co-founder and chief science officer, while the Carbon13 funding announcement identifies him as CTO. Because the primary sources conflict, the current company-site title is used here and the discrepancy remains in the research record.

Stanton's background spans materials engineering, chemistry, physics, nanotechnology, and postdoctoral research at the University of Cambridge. Matthew Howard is head of engineering, bringing experience in chemical-process scale-up and first-of-a-kind commercial facilities. That blend of scientific and plant-engineering experience is important because the coming work is no longer confined to proving a reaction in controlled conditions.

What the Market Evidence Shows So Far

Ki 13 says it has signed letters of intent with European e-fuel producers representing more than $15M in potential annual revenue across sustainable aviation fuel, e-methanol, and e-methane. It also reports biomass-supply agreements intended to support 5 years of scale-up.

These are commercial signals, not booked revenue or guaranteed offtake. The company has not disclosed customer names, contract terms, pricing, conversion rates, or the conditions required for the LOIs to become binding purchases. Still, the demand signal gives the pilot a more useful job than demonstrating chemistry alone. It must show that the system can produce consistent feedstocks at costs and specifications an e-fuel developer can actually use.

The company describes its addressable opportunity as more than $2T for green hydrogen and biogenic CO₂ drawn from economically aggregatable biomass residues. The company website also frames synthetic fuels as a route into a much larger fossil-fuel market. Both figures are company estimates and should be treated as market framing rather than independent forecasts.

What the Industrial Pilot Must Resolve

Laboratory energy efficiency is a strong starting point, but industrial economics depend on the entire plant. Biomass residues vary in moisture, composition, contamination, seasonality, and local availability. The system will need reliable preprocessing, catalyst recovery, gas purification, equipment uptime, safety controls, and maintenance routines without surrendering the electrical advantage demonstrated in the lab.

The West London pilot will also reveal how much of Ki 13's domestic-resilience argument survives logistics. An abundant feedstock is only commercially useful when it can be aggregated, transported, processed, and replenished at a predictable delivered cost. Supply agreements help, but operating data will determine whether those inputs remain an advantage at scale.

For synthetic-fuel developers, the attraction is straightforward: one process could provide 2 expensive chemical inputs while drawing value from residues that might otherwise be burned or left to decompose. For Ki 13, the financing creates an obligation to turn that integrated chemistry into a dependable industrial system.

The most consequential data will come after the reactor leaves the laboratory. Pumps, fouling, catalyst life, biomass variability, gas purity, and delivered cost will decide whether Ki 13 has built an elegant experiment or a practical feedstock business for the clean-fuel economy.