STARTUP "ON-DEMAND HYDROGEN" OM ENERGY LTD, ESTABLISHES IN THE UK WITH US AND OVERSEAS SEED FINANCING

Innovative alternative fuel company secures financing and sets up shop in the UK with help of British givernment.

A pioneering company, which has developed technology that extracts hydrogen from water, today announced that is has been established as a UK company.  UK Trade & Investment’s Global Entrepreneur Programme (GEP) assisted OM Energy Ltd in establishing it as a British company to develop its innovative Electro Hydrogen Generator (EHG) in the UK.

“The successful creation of OM Energy Ltd as a UK company represents UK Trade & Investment’s steadfast commitment to help develop global entrepreneurship based on exceptional intellectual property,” said Ian Pearson, UK Minister of State for Trade.  “I believe the company will benefit greatly from establishing its base in the UK, from which it can grow and penetrate the global marketplace.”

GEP has also helped OM Energy successfully secure initial private financing from a small syndicate of private technology and energy investors in the US and overseas.  The financing will support the establishment of OM Energy in the UK and be used for the assembly of version four of the OM Energy prototype prior to the commercial phase. 

The technology is a hydrogen-from-water generating process that helps solve many of the hydrogen creation and storage problems faced today and in the fast approaching "hydrogen economy."  It is the hydrogen that could be mixed with petrol to make a more cost effective and environmentally friendly fuel.  Water is made from two Hydrogen atoms and one Oxygen atom, and this process efficiently separates the H from the O.  The technology, if commercially successful, could in future help fuel cars using tap water and could even help ships power themselves using seawater.

In addition to supporting the company’s migration and introduction to financing sources, GEP assisted OM Energy with the evaluation of the technology and the transfer of the core patent to the protective environment of a UK company.  GEP will also help build and enhance its management team through a network of “Dealmakers,” who are serial entrepreneurs with technology and global business experience.

“OM Energy’s cutting-edge technology promises to contribute significantly to the hydrogen technology development,” said Eric Van Der Kleij, the Dealmaker responsible for the OM Energy relationship, and one of the UK’s government’s leading dealmakers.  “We are very pleased that the company decided to develop its technology and establish its business in the UK.”

Although OM Energy developed their patent and core technology in Russia, the company’s management felt they needed a strategically viable location to globally protect and expand their intellectual property and business.  GEP advised OM Energy on the benefits of establishing in the UK, and the company has cited GEP’s strategic counsel and networking support as the key catalysts to identifying funding sources and migrating to the UK.  The company has already filed the worldwide patents for the core EHG technology and is now poised to assemble version four of the EHG prototype in the UK.