Electrifying Planes, Ships, and Heavy Industry with H3X’s Electric Motors: Why We Invested in H3X
In 2023, 14 million EVs were sold around the world - bringing the total number of electric vehicles on the roads to nearly 40 million. Meanwhile, other sectors in the transportation market are stuck in an era of gas combustion. While we are entering a phase of the “electrification of everything”, the transformation for aerospace, defense, marine, and heavy industries requires significant advances in materials science, physics, and manufacturing.
We are pleased to announce our investment in H3X. The company has developed fully integrated, high power density, reversible, electric motor drives that are THREE TIMES better in power-to-weight ratio than comparable electrical motors.
The company’s innovation includes advances in material science, design, additive (i.e., 3D) manufacturing, thermals, and power electronics. The vertically-integrated company designs, tests, and manufactures its products at a single location.
The reward could be very large - both environmentally and economically. With the efficiency of electric motors and heat pumps, only 8-9 quads of electrical energy would be needed to replace 27 quads of fossil fuel energy, according to JP Morgan.
H3X enables previously untenable hybrid and electric use cases in sustainable aviation without sacrificing range and endurance. Short-haul flights with drones or air taxis will be dominated by electric aircraft, and the company’s suite of products can utilize the same technology to scale from 30kW motors to megawatt-class motors for large planes, all with a modular and integrated technology. Marine and industrial sectors can be decarbonized with H3X’s technology, and America’s defense ecosystem can realize an electrified future. H3X’s applicability in both commercial and defense use cases provide it very large markets to scale into.
Origin Ventures participated in an oversubscribed $20M Series A Financing for the Colorado-based company, joining investors including Lockheed Martin Ventures, Hanwha AM, Infinite Capital, Cubit Capital, and Industrious Ventures. The company previously raised seed funding from investors including Metaplanet, TechNexus, and Liquid 2 Ventures. This funding will allow the company to expand production and commercialize its megawatt-class motors.
The company is founded by a team of engineers who have known each other for many years, having worked together to build racing cars with Wisconsin Racing while in college. Company DNA includes exceptional electrical and material science engineers coming from companies like Anduril, Tesla, and SpaceX, with deep knowledge in electric machines, power electronics, material science, and advanced manufacturing.
H3X marks another investment around Origin’s theme of “electrification,” joining Torus (energy storage) and Pattern (autonomous EVs for airport ground operations). We believe these companies can build valuable moats around their technologies and the industries in which they operate, providing a cleaner, greener future across transportation, defense, and heavy industry. We’re excited to back H3X on its mission to become the world’s leading supplier of advanced electric motors, driving decarbonization across industries while strengthening national security.
