Fleet Space teams up with US hydrogen explorer startup in global hunt for renewable energy

South Australian satellite exploration startup Fleet Space has partnered with US startup Koloma in the hunt for natural hydrogen around the world.

Fleet’s space-based mapping platform, ExoSphere, will be used by Koloma, which has raised US$400 million in venture funding, to generate real-time 3D subsurface imaging of prospective hydrogen-forming geological formations.

While many tech companies have focused on hydrogen production, Koloma believes natural hydrogen is a viable source of renewable energy, having already identified significant hydrogen reserves in the United States.

ExoSphere, which is used to discover potential exploration sites for critical minerals, combines the startup’s own satellites in low earth orbit with smart sensors and artificial intelligence analysis to generate exploration datasets in just days. ExoSphere’s 3D subsurface imaging capabilities improve the targeting of exploratory drilling.

Fleet now operates in the US, Canada, Chile, and Luxembourg with 130+ employees globally. ExoSphere is used by more than 40 minerals exploration companies across five continents.

In December the Adelaide-based startup raised $150 million in Series D at an $800 million valuation in December.

An artist’s impression of the Fleet Space Centauri-6 microsatellite in orbit

The startup’s investors include Canada’s Teachers’ Venture Growth, the VC arm of Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, Blackbird, Hostplus, Horizons Ventures, Grok, the family fund of Atlassian cofounder Mike Cannon-Brookes and TelstraSuper.

Former European Space Agency propulsion engineer Flavia Tata Nardini, and aerospace entrepreneur, Matt Pearson, founded Fleet Space in 2018, initially as an IoT venture before morphing into using space exploration technologies for geomorphic analysis.

Tata Nardini said the two startup take a similar data-driven exploration approach.

“Fleet Space joining forces with Koloma represents the kind of industry partnerships needed to address the urgent demand for clean energy alternatives,” she said.

“With the latest advances in hyper-scalable, data-driven, end-to-end exploration technologies powered by space and AI, leaders working to build the foundation for Earth’s energy transition will have the next-gen tools to accelerate their path to discovery, while minimising environmental impact.”

Koloma chief technology officer, Dr Tom Darrah, called the collaboration “a powerful new chapter for Earth’s clean energy future” and hydrogen’s development as a scalable and sustainable energy source.

“Koloma’s data-driven expertise in geologic hydrogen plus the real-time 3D imaging of Fleet Space’s ExoSphere platform will enhance the scale and speed of our exploration programs, while also furthering our commitment to environmental preservation,” he said.