ANNOUNCEMENT

Crowell Team Advises Clean Energy Startup Koloma on $245M Series B Financing

February 12, 2024

A cross-practice Crowell team successfully represented Koloma, Inc., a leading clean energy developer, in securing $245 million in a Series B funding round. This significant investment attracted major backers such as Amazon’s climate fund, Khosla Ventures, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, and the venture capital arm of United Airlines. The closing of this funding round occurred just days after Koloma’s lab at Ohio State University, where co-founder Tom Darrah serves as a professor of Earth Sciences, received $900,000 in funding from the U.S. government’s $20 million initiative aimed at enhancing natural hydrogen exploration and production.

Koloma, a privately-held Denver-based company, is actively exploring for natural hydrogen deposits. They are developing technology to source hydrogen in a clean, continuous, and cost-effective manner, overcoming historical barriers to widespread adoption. Recognized as a leader in the clean energy sector and pivotal to U.S. decarbonization efforts, Koloma gained significant attention after securing $91 million in funding from Bill Gates and other major climate investors in 2023.

The initial closing of the Series B funding round occurred in December, with a subsequent closing in January, and it was first publicly reported by Axios in February. The Crowell cross practice team was led by Sam Edwards, and Justin Lurie with significant support from Jonathan Camello, Addie Cliffe, Clif Burns, Nimrah Najeeb, Bill Bruno and Jason Nahm. Crowell continues to represent Koloma as its outside general counsel in corporate, employment, IP, benefits, tax, FCPA, and regulatory matters.