Blackcurrant

In the second edition of our #ReInventingIndustry series, we’re spotlighting one of the most critical and dynamic venture categories: Clean Energy & Sustainability. 🚀 From battery innovators like Natrion Inc. and NanoGraf Corporation to renewable energy marketplaces like Blackcurrant and Innovo, the energy space is buzzing with activity in Chicago. These 90+ early-stage companies have collectively raised nearly $400M and are tackling some of the biggest challenges in energy today: 🔋 Battery Lifecycle Solutions 🌐 Energy Marketplaces ⚡ Grid Optimization Software 🌱 Sustainable Fuel Development Chicago’s robust ecosystem—featuring top-tier corporate customers like United Airlines, ComEd, Caterpillar Inc. and venture leaders such as Energize Capital, Evergreen Climate Innovations, and TechNexus—is driving innovation and growth in this essential field. 👉 Read the full breakdown (link in the comments) and discover the companies making waves in clean energy and sustainability! 💬 What local ventures are you excited about? Drop a comment or DM us to share your thoughts! #CleanEnergy #Sustainability #ChicagoStartups #ReInventingIndustry #VentureCapital

Thank you Frank Morris for inviting me to speak at the Georgia Hydrogen Summit on Mote’s BICRS project in the California ARCHES H2 hub along industry experts: Dat Tran from Independence Hydrogen Katie Ellet from ETCH, INC Andrew Temple from Plug Power Chethan (Chet) Acharya from Southern Company Jason Hanlin from Blackcurrant Georgia is an ideal state for a Mote facility due to the abundance of biomass and strategy for utilizing zero emission hydrogen. If your company is interested in offtake of carbon negative hydrogen or is looking to sequester carbon in Georgia or the surrounding states, please reach out directly via LinkedIn. #georgia #biomassenergy #hydrogen #carbonremoval

Congratulations to the HyVelocity Hub and the Midwest Alliance for Clean Hydrogen Hub on this remarkable achievement! Blackcurrant is proud to be a member of both hubs and is excited to contribute to advancing the clean hydrogen market in these regions.

We’re thrilled to be a sponsor at the Green Hydrogen Summit East Coast this year! 🎉 Join us in Philadelphia on November 19-20, where we’ll be connecting with industry leaders to drive innovation in hydrogen and low-carbon markets. At Blackcurrant, our mission is to simplify hydrogen trading and procurement, reducing time, cost, and complexity for buyers, sellers, and distributors. With our AI-powered platform, we’re creating a seamless and secure marketplace with trusted partners, in-depth market intelligence, and streamlined transactions. Looking forward to connecting with the community and fostering growth in the green hydrogen economy. Let’s make hydrogen accessible and scalable together! #GHEC24 #Hydrogen #LowCarbonSolutions

We’re thrilled to be a sponsor at the Green Hydrogen Summit East Coast this year! 🎉 Join us in Philadelphia on November 19-20, where we’ll be connecting with industry leaders to drive innovation in hydrogen and low-carbon markets. At Blackcurrant, our mission is to simplify hydrogen trading and procurement, reducing time, cost, and complexity for buyers, sellers, and distributors. With our AI-powered platform, we’re creating a seamless and secure marketplace with trusted partners, in-depth market intelligence, and streamlined transactions. Looking forward to connecting with the community and fostering growth in the green hydrogen economy. Let’s make hydrogen accessible and scalable together! #GHEC24 #Hydrogen #LowCarbonSolutions

"I used to study outside my small apartment where my parents lived [in India] when I was a child, and it was a blackcurrant tree that gave us shade." Last week I had the pleasure to speak Start@ETS 2023 finalist and Blackcurrant founder and CEO Akshay Thakur about his start-up journey. Thank you for sharing your story and wisdom with us. In this clip, Akshay shares the origin of the Blackcurrant name and how it ties directly to his motivation to becoming a clean-tech entrepreneur. Stay tuned for the full Zpryme on the grid episode. Excerpt below from Akshay's remarks: .......................................................................................................................................................... I never had the thought to become an entrepreneur. That was never actually in my mind until the company found ourselves with some money in the hand. The goal, when I was a child, was always to have an impact because I grew up in India, and funny enough, the story of Blackcurrant is that we chose the name Blackcurrant, because India used to have a lot of load shedding. We don't have a lot of electricity, reliable electricity in India. India is probably like 30 to 40 years behind United States, even more in terms of reliability. Both my parents still live in India, and they face the same challenges. So I grew fed up with the state affairs, and I used to study outside my small apartment like where my parents lived when I was a child, and it was a blackcurrant tree that gave us a shade. Me and my brother studied there and then we would get basically poured on and get all of our clothes stained by all these blackcurrants that would fall on us. So that's the memory I have from my childhood. And that's why we named the company Because it was from that time why I did electrical engineering. My dad is also an electrical engineer. So I wanted to understand. Why is it that there's load shedding happening? Some rich neighborhoods had power because they had inverters, lead-acid battery inverters, and we didn't have that. So it's just like, why is that so? So I grew kind of fed up of that. ............................................................................................................................................................ #startups #innovation #futureofenergy #AI #cleantech #thoughtleadership

The #CleanHydrogen industry is poised for rapid growth as a key component of the global #EnergyTransition. However, realizing hydrogen's potential requires overcoming significant technological and economic hurdles. This event will showcase cutting-edge software solutions being developed to streamline, advance, and de-risk clean hydrogen projects across the value chain. Attendees will learn about #InnovativeSoftwareTools addressing critical needs such as: ⏩ Hydrogen production optimization and plant management Infrastructure planning and network design ⏩ Supply chain and logistics optimization ⏩ Techno-economic modeling and project feasibility analysis ⏩ Asset management and predictive maintenance ⏩ Trading and market integration platforms #IndustryLeaders will demonstrate how these #solutions can #AccelerateHydrogenDeployment, improve project #economics, and enable the scaling of this promising #CleanEnergyVector. The event will highlight #software at various stages of development - from early-stage #startups to commercially available #enterprisesolutions - and explore their potential impact on the hydrogen economy. About the Audience. This event is ideal for: ⏩ Energy companies and utilities exploring hydrogen opportunities ⏩ Hydrogen project developers and operators ⏩ Investors and financial institutions evaluating hydrogen ventures Attendees will gain valuable #insights into the #LatestDigitalTools supporting hydrogen's growth, understand key technology trends, and identify potential partners and solutions to advance their hydrogen initiatives. Whether you are actively developing hydrogen projects or exploring future opportunities, this event will provide a comprehensive overview of how software is enabling the hydrogen transition. Speakers: ⏩ Alexi Liedes, Founder at HyJack ⏩ Shehzad Wadalawala, VP of Strategy at Verse ⏩ Shayan Salemizadeh, Director, Business Development at Blackcurrant Led by Lindsey Motlow, Sr. Research Associate at Darcy Partners Visit the event page to follow the registration steps. Click on the 'View Event' button below! 👇 #digitalsolutions #energytransition #events #forum #future #hydrogen #challenges

Thrilled to share the success of Darcy Partners' inaugural in person hydrogen event in Houston this summer! We had decision-maker-level participation from >20 companies across the hydrogen value chain. The event fostered innovation, collaboration, and knowledge sharing in the rapidly evolving hydrogen sector. KEY HIGHLIGHTS: 💡 Showcased 5 innovative hydrogen technologies and their users 🤝 Facilitated 36 unique connections between attendees and novel tech providers 👫 Hosted strategic roundtable discussions on upstream, midstream, and downstream perspectives 📢 Shared valuable Darcy Insights INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGIES SPOTLIGHT: ✔ Production:  🔹 Utility Global: Clean hydrogen and syngas from off-gases without electricity  🔹 Graforce GmbH: Plasma pyrolysis for hydrogen production ✔ Enabling Technologies: 🔹 H2SITE: Advanced membrane reactor for hydrogen separation & ammonia cracking  🔹 Vallourec: Vertical tubular subsurface hydrogen storage solution ✔ Markets: 🔹 Blackcurrant: AI/ML-supported B2B Hydrogen Marketplace Industry leaders shared real-world implementation experiences, providing attendees with valuable insights into these cutting-edge technologies. The event received outstanding feedback, with attendees rating overall enjoyment >9/10 and reporting valuable relationship-building opportunities. We're grateful to all participants for making this a truly impactful gathering. Darcy Partners looks forward to continuing to drive innovation and collaboration in the hydrogen space. If you're interested in learning more about Darcy Partners or this event, please reach out! Lennart Huijbers Sam Long Phil Kantor Claus Nussgruber Greg Heinlein Mike Iannelli Alex Jovicic, P.Eng, PMP Dr. Jens Hanke Guillermo Garcia-Miguel Eduardo Briales Palacios, PhD. Igor Egaña Livia Caradonna Andrew Cassidy Gabriel Roussie Carlo Bussi Akshay Thakur Shayan Salemizadeh Marco Weber #HydrogenInnovation #EnergyTransition #CleanTech #Hydrogen #CleanHydrogen #Hydrogenstorage #Wasserstoff #Innovation

Last month, Blackcurrant showcased its solution to hydrogen industry leaders at the Darcy Partners event in Houston. A Blackcurrant customer also shared their experience, highlighting how they use the Blackcurrant platform to secure offtakers and optimize their hydrogen projects. Transaction complexity, market opacity, and high infrastructure and counterparty risks are significant challenges faced by event attendees and the market today. Blackcurrant addresses these issues by offering a marketplace that reduces procurement time and transaction costs through streamlined transaction mechanisms and comprehensive market intelligence. Contact us at [email protected] to learn more!

We are #hiring! Looking to add a Senior Full Stack .Net developer to our team. Location: Chicago, USA [remote is also possible] Company Description: Blackcurrant is a cutting-edge hydrogen marketplace startup (www.blackcurrant.ai) revolutionizing the clean energy landscape. Our platform connects hydrogen producers and buyers, offering a comprehensive solution for the growing demand for clean energy. We’ve built core competencies in trading and AI/ML. We developed world-first LLM system, specialized in renewable energy and low-carbon fuels. At Blackcurrant, we firmly believe in diversity of thought—which is why we actively provide cross-functional development opportunities whether you're interested in Climate Tech, Fintech, or Marketplaces. Job Description: At Blackcurrant you will lead the strategic product vision and execution across the U.S., Europe, and Asia. The successful candidate will be a seasoned leader with extensive experience in software development and have a track record of successfully shipping products to market as well as leading large corporate organizations. Key responsibilities:  - Design, develop, and maintain robust, high-performance web applications using Angular and .NET.  - Lead the architectural design of our platform, focusing on scalability and performance.  - Collaborate with senior executives to co-develop and refine the product roadmap.  - Mentor and lead a team of developers in an Agile development environment.    Qualifications:   - 7+ years of experience in developing complex web applications.   - Tech Stack: (Must have) Previous experience with .Net framework (Backend), Angular (frontend). Azure & AWS cloud expertise.   - Demonstrated ability to work autonomously and showed a track record of leading software development teams, and shipped high quality software products  - You can build complex data pipelines, scrape APIs, build ETL (extract, transform, load) tools to manage data flows, and use advanced AI tools to process and visualize the data. Why should I join Blackcurrant?  - You will have an opportunity to work in an exciting ClimateTech field with a global impact  - You will be working with a nimble team of creative entrepreneurs, designers, software engineers and data scientists.  - You will be working with a technically complex platform, and you will bring new ideas how to improve existing features or propose new features that our customers will love  - You will receive a competitive salary package  - Fast career progression when you are delivering results To apply send your CV to [email protected] or DM on Linkedin.