France’s Audacia launches €150M fund dedicated to next-gen fuels

November 13, 2025, by Naida Hakirevic Prevljak

French growth equity firm Audacia has launched Calderion, a €150 million fund dedicated to next-generation fuels such as low-carbon hydrogen, CO2 capture, and e-fuels.

As informed, Paris-based Calderion will target technologies capable of reducing emissions from sectors that are difficult to electrify: maritime transport, aviation, and heavy industry, with the ambition of supporting 25 international champions in the decarbonized fuels value chain.

The new fund is said to be part of Audacia’s Deeptech strategy, which aims to promote decarbonization and energy sovereignty. Deeptech develops innovations such as quantum computing, AI, space technologies and carbon-free energy and Audacia supports these future technologies by providing financial resources and expertise to entrepreneurs in these fields.

“This new fund opens up a complementary field of action for our mission to serve European energy sovereignty,” Olivier de Panafieu, Founding Partner of Calderion and CEO of Audacia, commented.

“Next generation fuels represent a strategic lever for accelerating the energy transition. With Calderion, we aim to support technologies capable of making these new decarbonized fuels both competitive and abundant, through investments in companies selected for their disruptive nature and their complementarity in the value chain,” Vincent Brillault, Founding Partner of Calderion, said.

The fund’s initial investments illustrate this industrial approach:

H2SITE (high purity hydrogen)
MITICO (CO₂ capture)
KHIMOD (innovative reactors for e-fuels).

In other news, the European Commission adopted earlier this month the Sustainable Transport Investment Plan (STIP) which sets out a common approach to boost investments in renewable and low-carbon fuels focusing on waterborne and aviation transport.

View on Offshore-energy.

The plan responds to the urgent need of Europe’s transport and fuels industry to unlock investments and scale up production of renewable and low-carbon fuels and is part of a comprehensive transport package introduced on November 5, 2025. What is more, the plan is seen as a key component of the EU Clean Industrial Deal and the EU Competitiveness Compass.