Clean energy company Mantle8 announced that it has raised €31 million (USD$36 million) in a Series A funding round, with proceeds aimed at scaling and commercializing the company’s natural hydrogen explorations technology platform.

Hydrogen is viewed as one of the key building blocks of the transition to a cleaner energy future, particularly for industrial and transport sectors with difficult to abate emissions, in which renewable energy solutions such as wind or solar are less practical. Around 90 million metric tons of hydrogen are produced annually, although the vast majority is extracted using fossil fuels, which create pollutants and GHG emissions.

Founded in 2018 by founder and CEO Emmanuel Masini, France-based Mantle8 develops geoscience and imaging technologies designed to identify naturally occurring hydrogen reservoirs beneath the Earth’s surface.