German entrepreneur joins board of Australian fusion energy firm
German internet entrepreneur and investor Lukasz Gadowski has been appointed to the Board of Sydney-based HB11 Energy Holdings. The Australian start-up was established in 2020 to accelerate Physicist ProfessorHeinrich Hora’s research into laser Hydrogen Boron-11 fusion in order to tackle one of this century’s biggest challenges – identifying a new large-scale source of clean electricity. Professor Hora has been working in this field for half a century at UNSW Sydney.
“Professor Heinrich Hora is the pioneer of hydrogen-boron fusion technology. It is an honour to be part of the revolution of energy production alongside him,” said Lukasz Gadowski. I want to contribute to making this vision of clean and safe fusion energy a reality.”
Gadowski is a deep-tech investor with a mission to deliver a better future via technology and a focus on clean energy and next-generation aviation. As an entrepreneur he has grown several companies to multi-billion-dollar valuations, including Delivery Hero, which recently entered the DAX – Germany’s leading stock market index. Others include Enpal, Germany’s leading solar company for consumers, and Volocopter, a globally leading company in the upcoming field of Urban Air Mobility.
Dr Warren McKenzie, Founder and Managing Director of HB11 Energy said Mr Gadowski’s passion for physics, “experience building many immensely successful multinational companies and perspective on the broad impact of our technology, all make Lukasz a most valuable addition to our team.”
HB11 Energy Holdings Pty Ltd recently closed its oversubscribed pre-seed fundraise at $A4.6M, after opening the round in April 2020.
This investment has established Australia’s first commercial fusion energy company, which will now drive an international R&D program aimed at the Holy Grail of fusion energy research – to demonstrate net energy gain and prove that HB11 Energy can develop a clean, safe and virtually unlimited source of large scale electricity production.
The round was entirely funded by high-net-worth individuals.
“Since launching our pre-seed round in April last year, we’ve been overwhelmed by investors interested in the environmental impact of our technology, as well as the financial returns inherent in our success,” said Dr McKenzie.
Prof Hora’s work has been driven by the enormous benefits of the HB11 reaction for energy generation over other nuclear energy approaches. The HB11 reaction creates electricity directly, the fuels are safe and abundant, the reaction does not create harmful radiation and there is no possibility of a reactor melt-down. Patents have been granted in four countries for Hora’s concept generator.
“Our clean and absolutely safe reactor can be placed within densely populated areas, with no possibility of a catastrophic meltdown such as that which has been seen with nuclear fission reactors,” said Professor Heinrich Hora.
As HB11 Energy intends to ramp up its R&D activities this year, it is taking expressions of interest for collaborations with university and public sector researchers. HB11 Energy is also planning to launch a seed fundraising round later this year and is interested in hearing from prospective investors. EOIs will be taken via the HB11 Energy website. https://hb11.energy/contact/