Heavy industry faces an immense challenge: decarbonizing high-temperature heat, which still relies heavily on hydrocarbon combustion. For manufacturers, reducing emissions without disrupting processes or blowing up costs remains a major headache. That's the bottleneck Spark Cleantech is breaking through.
The deep tech company founded in 2022 within CentraleSupélec and CNRS today announces a €30M Series A round, including €17M in equity, led by 360 Capital and Taranis, with participation from Innovacom and Asterion Ventures, the company's early-stage investor.
This funding round will enable Spark to enter a new phase: scaling up and preparing for the commercialization of its first production module by the end of 2027.
Decarbonizing high-temperature industrial heat
The units developed by Spark Cleantech are installed directly between the existing gas network and industrial burners. Their role: transforming hydrocarbons without combustion, using a globally unique process called pulsed plasmolysis.
This process produces two decarbonized materials:
hydrogen, a solid carbon in the form of nanomaterials, used notably in polymers, batteries, and certain composites.
The result: up to 85% reduction in emissions, while creating four times the economic value compared to conventional combustion.
For industrial players, the value proposition is twofold:
→ decarbonize their processes without major infrastructure changes,
→ replace a highly emitting fossil material (traditional carbon black) with solid carbon produced without emissions.
A technology born in the lab, proven in the field
At the heart of Spark: a process invented at Stanford, developed in CentraleSupélec's laboratories, then industrialized by the Spark team in France.
This technology relies on pulsed plasma enabling efficient hydrocarbon separation, without combustion, and with the controlled formation of a high-value carbon nanomaterial.
The company has already achieved key milestones:
an initial pilot deployed in less than a year at an industrial partner's site, advanced testing in metallurgy, glassmaking, polymers and batteries, first contracts signed to prepare commercial unit deployment starting in 2027.
Objective 2027: first commercial module
The €30M funding will enable Spark to:
finalize and operate its first standard module, qualify the first commercial carbon grades, strengthen its team with 20 hires (sales, engineering, R&D).
Each module will be installed directly on-site, producing hydrogen and solid carbon as close as possible to the point of use, without the need for mass transport or storage.
An exceptional team
The co-founders Erwan Pannier (plasma physics, CentraleSupélec / Stanford) and Patrick Peters (industry and energy) have assembled an international team capable of combining scientific rigor with industrial execution.
They are supported by world-class experts, including:
a Nobel Prize laureate in Physics, a former R&D Director at Aramco, a former R&D Director at Hutchinson.
Since 2022, Spark has raised a total of €34M and has established itself as one of Europe's most promising deep tech companies in heavy industry decarbonization.
Why we're backing Spark
At Asterion Ventures, we invest in technologies capable of reconciling industrial performance, massive emissions reduction, and energy sovereignty.
Spark offers a pragmatic solution that can be integrated immediately, built on a scientific innovation that is unique worldwide.
We are proud to support their scale-up and confident that this technology will play a pivotal role in decarbonizing European industry.
🔗 Discover Spark Cleantech