Springfondet invests in Protia
Publisert fredag 11. april 2008

Springfondet, owned jointly by Kistefos and Forskningsparken, has completed its first investment round in the company Protia AS. After this transaction, Springfondet has investments in a portfolio of 14 seed stage companies.

Protia has been established to commercialize an innovative type of fuel cells, based on results from research projects at University of Oslo, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and SINTEF. A new type of electrolyte has been discovered, which will allow Protia to develop a Proton Conducting Fuel Cell (PCFC) with better efficiency than competing technologies.

This fuel cell technology is best suited for distributed generation of electricity. Scientists estimate an ability to convert 50-60% of the fuel’s energy to electricity, while another 30% can be utilized for heating purposes. This is very favorable compared to current distribution of electricity, where typically only 22-30% of the original fuel energy reaches point of use.

Intellectual Property Rights to the pertinent technology have been transferred to Protia. The involved research groups have further been awarded governmental research funds amounting to a total of NOK 40 million over the coming years. This is research that Protia will benefit greatly from.

Other shareholders in Protia are NTNU Technology Transfer and Birkeland Innovation (University of Oslo’s technology transfer office).

Please contact Colbjørn Foss for more information (phone: +47 95 15 16 80 or e-mail ).