FluoRok raises $30M Series A for HF-free fluorochemicals
Orano Venture Fund and Supernova Invest co-lead an oversubscribed $30M round for the Oxford spin-out making LiPF6 battery salt without hydrogen fluoride.
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Founded 2022 · Oxford, United Kingdom
FluoRok, an Oxford spin-out that makes fluorochemicals without hydrogen fluoride, has raised a $30M Series A co-led by Orano Venture Fund and Supernova Invest to build demonstrator facilities for battery electrolyte salts and reagents.
Orano and Supernova co-lead an oversubscribed $30M round
FluoRok raises $30M in an oversubscribed Series A announced on 5 November 2026, as Global Venturing and Tech Funding News both reported that day. At the xe.com mid-market rate of 5 November, that is about €26.7M. Orano Venture Fund, the corporate venture fund of French nuclear fuel group Orano, led the round with Supernova Invest, the firm that manages it.
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New money came from Bidra Innovation Ventures, scale-up partner CPI Enterprises, EverQuest Capital Partners, WS Investment and business angels, according to Tech Funding News. Oxford Science Enterprises, BGF, Green Generation Fund, Volta Energy Technologies and the University of Oxford all came back in. About $1.3M of the total is Innovate UK grant funding under its Investor Partnerships program, per Global Venturing.
The company says the money will pay for demonstrator facilities for reagents and battery electrolyte salts, a larger team, customer validation and commercial partnerships. “This funding will ensure FluoRok can swiftly move from start-up to scale-up,” said Gabriele Pupo, CEO and founder.
An Oxford chemistry lab that skips hydrogen fluoride
FluoRok was founded in 2022 as a University of Oxford spin-out by chemistry professor Véronique Gouverneur and Gabriele Pupo, now CEO, and sits in the Oxford Science Enterprises portfolio. Its patented process uses mechanical activation to make fluorochemicals with no hydrogen fluoride (HF), a hazardous acid.
According to the company, the process can take lower-grade fluorspar or recycled fluoride as feedstock and runs on off-the-shelf industrial equipment. Its main target is lithium hexafluorophosphate (LiPF6), the electrolyte salt in most lithium-ion batteries. FluoRok also targets inorganic fluorides for pharma and agrochemicals, sectors where about one in five medicines and one in three agrochemicals contain fluorine, the company told Global Venturing.
Pilot-scale validation is complete, according to Orano. No customers are named yet. Tech Funding News puts total equity raised at about $44M, $14M of it before this round, and counts more than $13M in UK and European public funding on top, including €2.5M from the EIC Accelerator that FluoRok announced in July 2026.
A $1.11bn battery salt market made mostly in China
The LiPF6 market was worth USD 1.11bn in 2025 and is projected to reach USD 3.47bn by 2034, a CAGR of 13.49% over 2026-2034, according to Polaris Market Research. Asia Pacific held a 47.46% revenue share in 2025 on the same source. Production is even more concentrated. Fastmarkets figures cited by Tech Funding News in November 2026 put China at roughly 85-90% of world LiPF6 output.
Do-Fluoride, Tinci, Capchem and Foosung are established Chinese and South Korean producers, and Koura, part of Orbia, is building a LiPF6 plant in Louisiana of up to 10,000 tonnes a year, per Tech Funding News. A growth rate of 13.49% roughly triples the market by 2034 on Polaris’s numbers, and a company at demonstrator stage is timing its first facilities into that curve. Customer validation sits right next to the demonstrators in the use of funds.
For scale, two other Series A rounds in Sesamers records are smaller. Green Voltis raised €13.5M in Stockholm for battery trading, backed by Lochpine Capital, and Vensum Power closed €9M for power conversion chips on 6 November 2026, co-led by Lifeline Ventures, Larsen & Toubro Group and Eviny Ventures. At about €26.7M, FluoRok’s round is roughly twice the first and three times the second.
Why a French nuclear group’s venture fund co-leads a British battery chemistry round
Europe has written a great many battery strategies. The salt inside most of those cells still comes from China, at 85-90% of world output on the Fastmarkets count. That dependence is the hard part of this story.
The good news is that the capital to change it now shows up in a single round. You only need to look at this round to see French corporate money leading, British public money through Innovate UK, and Oxford’s own investors coming back. Orano launched its venture fund in March 2024 with $54M, managed by Supernova Invest, according to Global Venturing and Business Wire. “We back companies whose technologies support a sovereign, sustainable industrial transition,” said Florian de Beauchaine of Orano Venture Fund and Supernova Invest.
Policy is moving the same way. The EU plan ReSourceEU foresees up to €3bn in 2026 for critical raw materials, per Tech Funding News. What I’m watching is whether chemistry like FluoRok’s gets counted in that bucket. Imagine if lower-grade fluorspar and recycled fluoride became a European feedstock for battery salt, made on standard industrial kit in the UK and on the continent.
What the demonstrator facilities have to prove
The next proof points are public ones: demonstrators running, a first named customer, and LiPF6 that battery makers validate against the incumbents’ product. Koura’s Louisiana plant shows the scale a Western producer is aiming for. FluoRok has the money to show its process at a size buyers can test.
How many more university chemistry labs in Europe are sitting on a process like this? The European fundraising data will tell us over the next few quarters. Europe has its strategy papers on critical raw materials. What comes next is plants that make battery salt, and this round pays for the first FluoRok demonstrators. Let’s watch them run, and build around them!
