Eindhoven-based RIFT, a startup on a mission towards a sustainable future powered by clean and renewable energy, announced that it has raised €2M in its first round of funding.
The startup aims to use iron fuel as a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels, thereby reducing CO2 emissions.
RIFT says it will use the funds to further develop its current test systems at Ennatuurlijk, Veolia Nederland, and Industriepark Kleefse Waard, and grow its team in order to save 1 gigatonne of CO2 per year by 2050.
The investment was led by Rubio Impact Ventures and was officially completed before Bill Gates’ climate fund Breakthrough Energy announced it would make funds and support available to RIFT.
Besides, Brabantse Ontwikkelings Maatschappij and Energy Transition Fund Rotterdam (ETF-R) also invested in this round.
Three friends from the Eindhoven University of Technology, Mark Verhagen, Vincent Seijger, and Lex Scheepers, created RIFT after collaborating on the development of iron fuel technology in the student team SOLID. This student group collaborated closely with Professor Philip de Goey, who developed iron fuel, as a member of the Metal Power Consortium.
In order to enable commercial access to this “promising” new clean fuel, Mark, Vincent, and Lex launched RIFT in 2021.
RIFT’s technology will allow heating to be produced using iron powder as a circular fuel with no outright CO2 emissions. This circular fuel is an environmentally friendly substitute for fossil fuels.
When the iron powder is burned, heat is produced, and the remaining powder, iron oxide (also known as rust), is converted back into iron fuel, which may then be used to generate heat once more (and again and again).
In order to immediately replace gas-fueled boilers and reduce annual CO2 emissions by thousands of tonnes, RIFT is developing industrial-scale boilers.
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