Founders: Chris Bumby, Chris Jansen, Martin Hacon and Bavinesh Maisuria

CullBeck, a Wellington deep-tech startup spun out of Victoria University of Wellington's Robinson Research Institute, has raised NZ$20 million (A$18.5 million) to commercialise a process that makes iron using hydrogen instead of coal.

The round, which values the company at around NZ$60 million, was led by Outset Ventures, with 2040 Ventures contributing more than half the equity investment, alongside the New Zealand government's Aspire fund, K1W1, Icehouse Ventures and Motion Capital.

Conventional ironmaking strips oxygen from ore using coal in a blast furnace, a CO₂-heavy process that takes more than eight hours. CullBeck's continuous fluidised-bed reactor does the same job with hydrogen in under two and a half minutes, and emits only water. It's tuned for titanomagnetite, the iron-rich black sand found along New Zealand's West Coast, and also in South Africa and China.

Developed over seven years by Professor Chris Bumby's team with NZ$8 million in government funding, the technology is now headed for a demonstration plant beside NZ Steel's Glenbrook site. CullBeck has already signed an Australian anchor customer that committed to buying 18 modules, a deal it projects at more than a billion dollars if the demonstrator performs. Hacon sees demand well beyond Australasia — from titanomagnetite deposits across the Ring of Fire to North American buyers of vanadium and titanium.