Dutch thermoplastic composite pipe producer Strohm bags €15M: Know more here

Netherlands-based Strohm, a hydrogen pipeline company, announced on Thursday, December 15, that it has raised €15M in a fresh round of funding. According to a statement from the Dutch company, this is the largest funding round in the company’s 15-year history.

Strohm’s €15M investment includes a €10M commitment from ING Corporate Investments (a 100 per cent subsidiary of ING Bank), as well as a further €5M co-investment from existing investors Shell Ventures, Chevron Technology Ventures, Evonik Venture Capital and HydrogenOne Capital Growth Plc (HydrogenOne).

Corstiaan Withagen, MD of ING Corporate Investments, says, “Strohm is clearly the undisputable market leader in TCP, a market with huge potential specifically in the renewable energy market. With the company’s technology, superior product and proven track record, Strohm has created a sustainable and durable competitive advantage paving the way for an accelerated growth path.”

Prior to this, in August 2022, the Dutch company initially raised €14M from HydrogenOne (which invested €10M), and the remaining amount came from Strohm’s other main shareholders. Within the total round, HydrogenOne invested a total of €11.25M.

Capital utilisation

Strohm also mentions that it is the world’s first and leading producer of Thermoplastic Composite Pipe (TCP) – an unbonded pipe concept in which a thermoplastic liner is overwrapped with aramid or glass fibres and covered with an outer thermoplastic coating. TCP is a flexible, corrosion-resistant pipe technology that does not corrode or experience embrittlement, which is a problem when utilising steel pipe for hydrogen.

Strohm says it will use the funds in accelerating the growth of its manufacturing operations and increasing capacity to deliver its TCP solutions to offshore green hydrogen and carbon capture and utilisation and storage (CCUS) markets. Besides, the money will also help the company’s clients in achieving their net-zero goals.

Strohm’s CEO, Martin van Onna says, “With the largest orderbook in our history and rapidly increased sales globally, Strohm is embarking on an accelerated growth path; the €29M commitment will enable us to ramp up operations globally, and implement operational excellence as required for a fast-growing organisation.”

Leading manufacturer of Thermoplastic Composite Pipe

Founded in 1995, Strohm is a private supply chain company that is focused on the offshore wind-to-hydrogen sector. It claims to support a reliable, faster and cheaper green energy transition globally. The company is creating reliable pipeline solutions so that green hydrogen produced at offshore wind farms may be sent to land using Strohm’s underwater pipe network.

In 2012, a full-scale production site for Thermoplastic Composite Pipes (TCP) was built in IJmuiden, Port of Amsterdam. Two years later, the company became independent as Airborne Oil & Gas. In October 2020, Airborne Oil & Gas rebranded to Strohm.

Strohm CEO, Martin van Onna says, “Our aim is to reduce the carbon emission intensity of pipelines around the world and increase our support to the growing hydrogen sector. TCP is an innovative, game-changing technology that is agnostic to all fluids and gases including hydrogen, ammonia and CO2. TCP is lightweight and delivered in long lengths on reels, allowing it to be installed by small vessels, reducing cost and carbon footprint. Through these benefits, we have built the world’s largest track record of TCP pipe in operation under harsh conditions”

Currently, the company employs 170 people at its facilities in Ijmuiden, Houston (US), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), and Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) and is growing its workforce in order to meet customer demand.

In November, Strohm received a contract from ECOnnect to supply more than 11 km of TCP for Tree Energy Services (TES), a large-scale green hydrogen producer, at its Wilhelmshaven Green Gas Terminal in Germany. Strohm will provide six 8-inch flowlines with a length of nearly two kilometres each, qualified for the transfer of natural gas and prepared for CO2.