{"id":594102,"date":"2026-09-08T17:20:24","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T17:20:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/594102\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T17:20:24","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T17:20:24","slug":"christchurch-start-up-kura-dynamics-raises-5m-for-geologic-hydrogen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/594102\/","title":{"rendered":"Christchurch start-up Kura Dynamics raises $5m for geologic hydrogen"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2021, Seequent \u2013 a Christchurch maker of 3D earth modelling and geoscience software \u2013 was sold<\/a> to Nasdaq-listed Bentley Systems for US$1.05 billion ($1.45b at the exchange rate of the time).<\/p>\n

Seequent\u2019s story is immediately familiar to Joynt, who spent 14 years with the firm. Oze has spent the past seven years with cleantech outfit Aspring Materials.<\/p>\n

\"WhenWhen water flows over iron-rich rocks, oxygen can be stripped away, creating “geologic” or “orange” hydrogen. “Stimulation” is the energy industry jargon for nudging the process along. Photo \/ Getty<\/p>\n

There are a number of industrial processes that humans use to synthesise hydrogen above ground. Those include passing water, aka H2O, through a (sometimes fossil fuel-powered<\/a>) electrolyser to split it into oxygen and hydrogen. <\/p>\n

But Kura\u2019s focus is on the hydrogen beneath our feet; specifically where water flowing over iron-rich rocks creates \u201cgeologic\u201d or \u201corange\u201d hydrogen as oxygen atoms are stripped away. <\/p>\n

This natural geochemical process happens almost exclusively underground. If it needs a nudge, it can also be triggered or accelerated \u2013 \u201cstimulated\u201d is the industry jargon \u2013 by techniques including drilling and injecting hot water.<\/p>\n

\"\u201cMost\u201cMost start-ups in this space are exploration plays. What drew me to Kura is that their team isn\u2019t just hunting for places where hydrogen has already pooled underground” – GD1 general partner Aaron Small.<\/p>\n

The problem is that none of the methods tried so far have been reliable or economic at scale.<\/p>\n

Kura\u2019s founder says they\u2019re using \u201ca unique combination of real-world chemistry expertise, proprietary data and supercomputing, designed to accelerate the development of a safe and reliable hydrogen stimulation frame\u201d. <\/p>\n

They\u2019ve developed a breakthrough that\u2019s worked on a small scale in a lab. The pre-seed money will be used for a push toward in-the-field commercialisation.<\/p>\n

The details are under wraps, but Joynt said it centred on smart use of data in geologic hydrogen recovery to actively support decision-making in real time.<\/p>\n

Chemist turned capitalist<\/p>\n

The raise was co-led by GD1 and Motion Capital, which now own 27% of Kura between them.<\/p>\n

It was supported by Outset Ventures, Sir Stephen Tindall\u2019s K1W1 and the Crown-backed NZ Growth Capital Partners (NZGCP). The wider shareholder group also includes Icehouse Ventures, Breakthrough Energy and Elemental Impact.<\/p>\n

\u201cHydrogen stimulated from geological systems represents a significant emerging opportunity globally,\u201d said GD1 general partner Aaron Small, who gained a PhD in chemistry and worked in cleantech before switching to venture capital.<\/p>\n

Beyond the exploration crowd<\/p>\n

\u201cMost start-ups in this space are exploration plays,\u201d Small adds. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat drew me to Kura is that their team isn\u2019t just hunting for places where hydrogen has already pooled underground.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile others are asking where to find geological hydrogen, Kura is asking a much harder question: can we understand these subsurface processes well enough to work with them deliberately, so that we can manufacture hydrogen at a scale that matters.\u201d<\/p>\n

MORE ON HYDROGEN<\/p>\n

Motion Capital partner Ralph Chang says: \u201cRock, water, and the Earth\u2019s own chemistry doing the work that every other hydrogen pathway burns enormous amounts of power to force. <\/p>\n

\u201cKura is building the intelligence layer that turns an unpredictable natural reaction into something you can steer. If successful, this could enable a wholesale clean hydrogen infrastructure rollout and adoption at a global scale.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oze says: \u201cSome of the world\u2019s biggest opportunities are hidden beneath our feet. Kura is building the technology to understand how the Earth\u2019s natural processes work so we can use them more wisely and sustainably.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald\u2019s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 2021, Seequent \u2013 a Christchurch maker of 3D earth modelling and geoscience software \u2013 was sold to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":594103,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[39052,6726,138,6434,4487,40834,59194,1667,1866,2082,292872,41227,40368,5971,111,139,1536,69,51460,11596,1037,4468,1955],"class_list":["post-594102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-5m","tag-become","tag-business","tag-cheaper","tag-christchurch","tag-clean","tag-dynamics","tag-energy","tag-find","tag-for","tag-geologic","tag-hydrogen","tag-kura","tag-need","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-next","tag-nz","tag-produce","tag-raises","tag-startup","tag-thing","tag-ways"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=594102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/594103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=594102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=594102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=594102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}