H2CHP, a cleantech startup developing fuel-flexible electric generators, has raised £1.5 million from Northstar Ventures and Blackfinch Ventures alongside grant funding from Innovate UK. The round includes a £300,000 investment from the North East Spinout Inspire Fund, £500,000 from Blackfinch Ventures and £700,000 from Innovate UK’s investor partnership programme.
Developed for use in data centres, ports, construction, backup power and microgrid deployment, H2CHP’s linear electric generator technology does not utilise permanent magnets and rare-earth materials. The generators can run on hydrogen, ammonia, biofuels and e-fuels to help reduce supply-chain risk, cut carbon emissions and improve performance.
More than a decade of research led by Professor Tony Roskilly underpins the technology. Alongside his role as Chairman and academic founder of H2CHP, Roskilly is Professor of Energy Systems at Durham University and Co-Director of the Durham Energy Institute. Newcastle University also retains a shareholding in the business.
Over the past year, Northstar Ventures worked with H2CHP through the Port of Tyne accelerator and Durham University’s technology transfer office. Entering a phase of pre-deployment testing, H2CHP has also been accepted into the Hydrogen Innovation Initiative organised by Connected Places Catapult and selected for Tech Nation’s 2026 Climate Programme.
Founded with support from the Northern Accelerator “Executives into Business” programme, H2CHP is led by CEO Stephen Hampson, who has a background in engineering and venture capital. The business has also secured more than £1.1 million in Innovate UK funding for its Clean Maritime Demonstrator project.
We are very pleased to complete our investment in H2CHP, which is the first in a Durham University spin-out from the North East Spinout Inspire Fund. We have been consistently impressed by Tony, Stephen and the rest of the team as they tackle a growing and serious challenge in supplying clean, flexible power to a rapidly expanding market. The market is driven by organisations seeking to decarbonise their existing operations in difficult sectors such as Maritime, as well as growth in new sectors such as data centres fuelled by the growth of AI and associated energy needs.
From the outset, H2CHP has been about translating advanced research in free-piston engine systems into a commercially meaningful power generation technology. This support is a strong endorsement of the progress the company has made and of the wider potential for high-efficiency, fuel-flexible generation to play an important role in the transition to lower-carbon, more resilient energy systems.
This support is an important step for H2CHP as we continue to develop and demonstrate our free-piston linear generator technology. We believe there is a major opportunity for high-efficiency, low-emission and fuel-flexible local power generation in applications such as microgrids, EV charging, ports and data centres, where resilience, cost and decarbonisation all matter.
