Hy24

Hy24 was formed in 2021 as a 50/50 joint venture between FiveT Hydrogen, a Swiss clean-hydrogen investment platform, and Ardian, one of Europe's largest private investment houses. Ardian contributes institutional fund management infrastructure, LP relationships, and regulatory expertise, while FiveT provides sector-specific origination and technical diligence capabilities. The joint venture structure gives Hy24 both operational independence and the backing of an established private markets franchise.

The Clean Hydrogen Infrastructure Fund targets growth-equity and infrastructure investments across the entire clean hydrogen value chain: production (electrolysis, steam methane reforming with carbon capture), storage and distribution (pipelines, liquefaction, refueling stations), and end-use applications (heavy mobility, industrial feedstock, power generation). The fund invests primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia, with a preference for industrial-scale assets that have secured offtake commitments. It is classified as an Article 9 fund under SFDR.

The fund's €2 billion close in October 2022 included over 50 institutional investors. Publicly disclosed anchor LPs include TotalEnergies, Air Liquide, Vinci, Baker Hughes, and Lotte Chemical, alongside development finance institutions, European pension funds, and sovereign wealth funds. The large corporate LP contingent is a deliberate structuring choice, designed to embed strategic offtakers and industrial partners directly into the fund's governance and deal-sourcing apparatus (per the firm, 2022).

Hy24 is a single-vector specialist — its entire economics are aligned to the success of clean hydrogen, rather than hydrogen being one allocation among many. This focus concentrates the team's technical expertise, deal-sourcing networks, and LP relationships exclusively within the hydrogen ecosystem. The firm's leadership, particularly CEO Pierre-Etienne Franc, brought deep industrial hydrogen experience from Air Liquide prior to founding Hy24, giving the manager a technical credibility that generalist climate funds rarely possess in the sector.

Yes, co-investment alongside strategic industrial partners is a core feature of Hy24's model. Because many of the fund's anchor LPs are themselves hydrogen-value-chain participants — energy majors, industrial gas companies, and engineering firms — the firm frequently structures deals as direct equity stakes where the industrial partner also provides offtake agreements or operational support. This co-investment posture is intended to de-risk projects at the commercial deployment stage.

Pierre-Etienne Franc serves as CEO and is the most senior investment decision-maker. He is a former Air Liquide executive who led the company's hydrogen energy activities globally before co-founding Hy24. Deputy CEO Laurent Fayollas, formerly at Ardian, oversees fund operations and LP relationships. Investment committee composition beyond Franc and Fayollas is not publicly detailed, but the firm draws on both the FiveT and Ardian ecosystems for specialist input.

Hy24 targets the scale-up and industrial deployment stage — it bridges the gap between venture-funded technology development and fully bankable, brownfield infrastructure. This means writing equity checks into first-of-a-kind commercial plants, expansion of existing industrial hydrogen assets, and building out distribution networks. The firm explicitly avoids early-stage technology risk and prefers projects that have secured engineering, procurement, and construction contracts and offtake visibility.