Mantle8 Raises €31M Series A To Accelerate Natural Hydrogen Drilling Campaign In France

The round was led by Sandwater and included participation from Breakthrough Energy Ventures, the Ecotechnologies 2 fund managed by Bpifrance on behalf of the French government, as well as IP Group, Wind Capital, and Calderion.

The company will use the funding over the next two years to advance what it describes as the world’s most ambitious natural hydrogen exploration and drilling campaign.

Mantle8 plans to deploy its proprietary exploration platform across a global pipeline of projects to identify and prioritise commercially viable hydrogen reservoirs. Selected sites will then undergo drilling to verify hydrogen accumulations and assess factors such as reservoir volume, purity, and quality to support large-scale production.

Founded in 2019 by Emmanuel Masini, Mantle8 aims to achieve commercially viable natural hydrogen production by 2030. The company argues that hydrogen will play a key role in a decarbonised industrial future, but its widespread adoption will depend heavily on affordability and sustainability of supply.

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Mantle8 says its technology lowers exploration risk and costs with economic models estimating production costs as low as €0.80 per kilogram, potentially making clean hydrogen significantly more affordable.

The company develops proprietary subsurface modelling and exploration technologies, including HOREX®, a multiphysics platform designed to generate 4D images of active underground hydrogen systems.

Its exploration methodology, known as the Geological Trifecta, identifies reservoirs where three critical factors align: an active hydrogen-generating source, continuous replenishment, and a sufficiently sealed reservoir.

Mantle8 believes its approach could reshape the economics of the hydrogen sector by unlocking low-carbon, domestically sourced energy supplies for Europe and other regions.

Through partnerships with organisations specialising in drilling and reservoir development, the company expects its technology to scale rapidly across international markets.

Emmanuel Masini, founder and CEO of Mantle8, said, “This raise reflects the growing conviction among leading clean tech investors that natural hydrogen is a resource worth pursuing at scale. The existence of natural hydrogen is a well-established scientific fact; the challenge has been finding free gas accumulations of high-purity hydrogen that are commercially viable. I’m proud that we’ve built and patented an entire technology stack to answer this critical challenge, meeting the expectations of our existing shareholders.

“The next steps are to identify the prospects in our pipeline that meet our commercial hurdles and drill them. I’m excited to welcome investors who have a long history of involvement in subsurface resources, sovereign investments and ecosystem building.”