Our Investment in Fourier
On-site, on-demand hydrogen production
Hydrogen has long been hailed as a critical enabler of industrial decarbonization, with use cases spanning feedstock, power backup, fuel, and long-duration energy storage. But while the promise of green hydrogen is massive, its practicality has remained elusive. Today, the vast majority of hydrogen is produced centrally and transported via tankers or cylinder banks, a model that imposes steep economic and logistical penalties. The costs of compressing, transporting, and storing hydrogen are often 7 to 15 times higher than the cost of production itself. This has ultimately made the economics of hydrogen production difficult for smaller-scale production and use.
Fourier is turning this model on its head. By delivering cost-efficient, modular, and intelligent on-site hydrogen generation, Fourier removes the need for long-haul delivery and high-pressure storage —unlocking a new economic equation for industries that have been stuck paying a premium for access. MCJ is excited to participate in Fourier’s $18.5M Series A led by General Catalyst and Paramark Ventures with significant participation from Airbus Ventures, GSBackers, Borusan Ventures, Positive Ventures and others.
What is Fourier?
At its core, Fourier is rethinking how hydrogen gets made—not in centralized plants with billion-dollar infrastructure but locally, on demand, wherever it’s needed. The company’s flagship product is a modular hydrogen generator, designed from the ground up to be as flexible and scalable as a server rack. Built from an array of small, intelligent electrolysis stacks, each device is fully automated and optimized by software to respond to real-world operating conditions—adjusting in real time to degradation, shifting loads, and customer-specific usage patterns. This architecture allows Fourier to produce hydrogen from electricity and water at significantly lower cost than traditional transported hydrogen while also eliminating the need for high-pressure storage or volatile distribution systems. The system is fast to deploy, safe to operate, and built to scale. By putting smart hydrogen production at the edge of the grid, Fourier is unlocking new economics for industries that have historically been priced out of the hydrogen market.
Why Did We Invest?
Compelling Founder-Market Fit
Fourier is co-founded by Siva Yellamraju. A computer science graduate from IIT Guwahati with an MBA from Stanford, Siva has co-founded multiple startups across video collaboration, AI, and hardware—three of which were acquired by industry giants Poly, Google, and Apple. Most recently, he led camera innovation at Apple, including foundational work on features like Center Stage.
Ali-Amir Aldan is the co-founder of Fourier alongside Siva. Ali-Amir is a seasoned software and hardware systems engineer with deep expertise in embedded systems, imaging, and firmware. After graduating from MIT, he began his career at Google and Facebook before teaming up with Siva on two startups, including Akruta, where he led firmware development. Now as co-founder of Fourier, Ali applies his deep technical foundation to the electrochemical systems powering the future of distributed hydrogen.
Modular Architecture Built for Flex and Scale to Meet Mid-Market Industrial Demand
Hydrogen, already a $200B global market with strong unit economics for industrial feedstock, is expanding—yet a critical gap exists. While large industrial players enjoy cost-effective in-house production and smaller users accept expensive delivered hydrogen, mid-market users—petrochemical manufacturers, pharma producers, and metal refiners—have been left without viable options.
Fourier addresses this $40B opportunity with the first scalable hydrogen solution designed specifically for mid-market industrials. Traditional hydrogen systems feature massive, centralized infrastructure with monolithic electrolyzers, but Fourier's innovative approach uses small, interchangeable electrolysis stacks managed independently by integrated software. This fundamentally different architecture enables real-time optimization, graceful degradation as components wear down, and precise scaling based on actual customer needs.
The economic impact is transformative. Mid-market companies typically pay 2-4x the production cost for delivered hydrogen, burdened by the 7-15x cost premium of compression, transportation, and storage. Fourier eliminates these inefficiencies, delivering hydrogen at competitive costs without requiring massive capital investments while simultaneously improving safety, reducing emissions, and simplifying operations.
Market validation has been swift. After successful pilots with a pharmaceutical manufacturer and solar energy company in April 2024, Fourier has secured commercial-scale pilots across specialty chemicals, flat glass, and energy storage, with launches coming up in Ohio and California in 2025 and full deployments planned for early 2026.
As energy demands increase from AI and advanced technologies, Fourier's software-defined system is making hydrogen viable for industries historically priced out of the market—transforming the hydrogen economy through modularity, flexibility, and scale.
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