Koloma: Geologic Hydrogen Company Raises $246 Million

By Amit Chowdhry • Feb 13, 2024

Koloma – a geologic hydrogen company that utilizes its technology, proprietary data, and human capital advantages to identify and commercialize these resources globally – has raised $245.7 million in funding.

This funding round was disclosed in an SEC filing on February 9 – which was a day after the company won a research grant from the U.S. Energy Department for stimulating hydrogen production and extracting the fuel.

This funding round was led by Khosla Ventures and it also included investment from Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund and United Airline’s Sustainable Flight Fund. Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Energy Impact Partners also joined the funding round. This boosted the company’s total funding to over $300 million.

Koloma’s technology is based on research by co-founder and CTO Tom Darrah, a professor at the Ohio State University. Darrah and his team are focused on three primary areas of research: 1.) Determining the geological processes that control the migration of fluids like water, natural gas, oil, carbon dioxide, and helium in the Earth’s crust and mantle 2.) Developing geochemical techniques that constrain and improve unconventional energy exploration and extraction and 3.) Aplying traditional isotope geochemistry for evaluating the potential impacts of energy extraction on the environment and human health.

Along with Darrah, Koloma was founded by CEO Pete Johnson and chief business officer Paul Harraka.