Electric Motor Startup H3X Raises $20 Million

Electric motor startup H3X on Tuesday announced it has raised $20 million through an oversubscribed Series A round led by Infinite Capital, with participation from Hanwha Asset Management, Cubit Capital, Origin Ventures, Industrious Ventures, Venn10 Capital, and follow-on investors that include Lockheed Martin Ventures, Metaplanet, Liquid 2 Ventures and TechNexus.

Denver-based H3X manufactures high power density electric motors for aviation, marine, industrial and defense applications. Ranging in size from 40HP to 40,000HP, H3X motors feature integrated drives and are said to be a third of the weight of their competitors.

"We're on an ambitious journey to become the world's leading supplier of advanced electric motors," said Jason Sylvestre, co-founder and CEO of H3X. "With remarkable speed, we've proven that this technology works and has a key role to play in enabling sustainable aviation, decarbonizing the marine and industrial sectors, and unlocking next-generation electrified defense technology."

"Through the past three years working with H3X, I have seen a phenomenal display of rapid innovation from the team. Bringing technical advancements to market this fast is rare, as they have already commercialized a series of market-leading electric motors," said Nathan Doctor, founder and managing partner at Infinite Capital. "I strongly believe we're on the verge of electrifying aviation and maritime transport, with H3X's electric propulsion systems as the foundational technology."

In the past 24 months, H3X has validated its core technology, launched the HPDM-30, HPDM-250 and HPDM-140 integrated motor drives and delivered these units to aerospace and defense customers. The company also completed multiple contracts with both NASA and the Air Force.

Sylvestre said the funding round will enable H3X to scale up production and operations and deliver on large contracts in its pipeline. H3X is planning to expand production and bring its next-generation, multi-sector class of integrated motor drives to the market, including the HPDM-350 as well as the megawatt-class HPDM-1500 and HPDM-2300, which have applications in the marine sector.

H3X said it sees hybrid systems playing an increasingly larger role in the electrification transition because of the fuel burn reduction that can be realized without sacrificing mission range/endurance. This translates to lower operating costs as well as reduced emissions. In hybrid applications, H3X's products can be used as either motors or generators without any hardware modifications required, the company said.

"H3X is focused on scaling innovative technologies that we believe could offer our customers effective solutions for electrifying legacy, multi-domain systems," said Chris Moran, vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin Ventures. "Lockheed Martin's continued investment in H3X underscores our dedication to advancing innovative solutions and expanding the defense industrial base to ensure the U.S and its allies remain ahead of emerging threats."

"As an investor in frontier technologies, we were immediately impressed that H3X has solved the biggest engineering challenges to unlock major benefits for weight and volume sensitive applications," said Philip Carson of Cubit Capital. "Notably, every customer spoke about how they want to work with this team above others. With strong traction today at the Department of Defense, we're excited about how they can leverage that success to scale across industries."