Kvasir Technologies raises €10M Series A to scale climate-neutral marine fuel

Copenhagen-based Kvasir Technologies has raised a €10 million Series A to scale its process for turning agricultural and forestry waste into marine biofuel. The announcement named no lead investor: new backer European Energy joined existing investors EIFO, Mærsk Growth and the Footprint Fund.

Fuel from waste, in one step

A 2018 spin-out from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Kvasir is built around a single-step process — solvothermal liquefaction — that converts lignin-rich, non-edible biomass (the residues of farming and forestry) into a drop-in marine fuel. "Drop-in" is the crucial word: the output is designed to work in existing ships rather than requiring new engines or infrastructure, which is the bottleneck that has slowed most alternative marine fuels.

CEO Joachim Bachmann Nielsen, who developed the core technology, frames the round as proof that capital still backs hard climate solutions in shipping — a sector under mounting decarbonisation pressure but starved of fuels that work today.

From pilot to plant

The clearest signal in the deal is structural. Beyond investing, European Energy has formed a joint venture with Kvasir — KVEEN Biofuels — to build toward commercial-scale production. The Series A funds the next steps: scaling Kvasir's test facility in Fredericia toward two tonnes of biofuel a day, and beginning development of a first commercial plant in Aabenraa, in southern Jutland.

Founded by Nielsen and COO Anders Bak Kristoffersen, Kvasir is wagering that the path to decarbonising shipping runs through waste streams that already exist — and that a fuel needing no new engines is the one most likely to scale.