FluoRok closes £22.3m series A led by Orano Venture Fund with Bidra Innovation Ventures
This article covers FluoRok, a UK biotech startup, which has closed an oversubscribed £22.3m series A funding round to scale a manufacturing platform for fluorochemicals that removes the need for hydrogen fluoride. The funding aims to support scaling an HF-free production route and to localise supply of fluorinated materials used in medicines, agrochemicals and lithium-ion batteries.
FluoRok, a UK biotech startup spun out of the University of Oxford, has closed an oversubscribed £22.3m series A funding round to scale a manufacturing platform for fluorochemicals that removes the need for hydrogen fluoride. The raise matters because it aims to replace an older, hazardous production route and to localise supply of key fluorinated materials used in medicines, agrochemicals and lithium-ion batteries.
Why it matters
Fluorine chemistry is embedded across modern industry: roughly one in five medicines and one in three agrochemicals contain fluorine, and fluorochemicals are central to lithium-ion battery electrolytes. Yet most production still relies on hydrogen fluoride, a toxic reagent that requires specialised infrastructure, and on high-purity fluorspar, a raw material concentrated in a small number of countries.
That combination creates safety, regulatory and supply-chain constraints that raise costs and limit where new capacity can be built. FluoRok’s approach, if it scales, could reduce those barriers by enabling lower-capital, lower-risk production closer to end markets.
Inside the product
FluoRok’s process replaces acid and high-temperature routes with a mechanical activation technique that runs on off-the-shelf industrial equipment. The platform is designed to be HF-free and to accept lower-grade mined fluoride or fluoride recovered from industrial waste streams, rather than relying exclusively on high-purity fluorspar.
Initial commercial focus is on inorganic fluorides for pharmaceutical and agrochemical applications and on lithium hexafluorophosphate (LiPF6), the dominant electrolyte salt in lithium-ion batteries. The company says it has completed pilot qualifications and secured traction with key customers; the new funding will be used to build demonstrator facilities, validate products at industrial scale, expand the team and broaden commercial partnerships.
Who are the investors?
The £22.3m round was led by Orano Venture Fund/Supernova Invest, with new participation from Bidra Innovation Ventures and continued backing from existing investors Oxford Science Enterprises, BGF, GGF, Volta Energy Technologies and the University of Oxford, from which FluoRok was spun out.
The round exceeded its target and included several angel investors and smaller partners such as EverQuest Capital Partners, CPI Enterprises (also a startup partner), and WS Investment. About £965k of the raise came as grant funding from Innovate UK through its Investor Partnerships programme. The financing builds on roughly £10.4m raised in earlier equity rounds and more than £9.7m of UK and European public funding to date.
Orano Venture Fund is the corporate venture arm of Orano, a global operator in the nuclear fuel cycle, and is managed by Supernova Invest, a European deeptech investor with around €800m under management and a portfolio across cleantech, digital and industrial technologies. Bidra Innovation Ventures is the corporate VC of Morocco’s OCP Group and Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, focused on founders reworking agriculture, industrials and mining.
In the announcement, Florian de Beauchaine, Investment Manager, Orano Venture Fund/Supernova Invest, said:
We back companies whose technologies support a sovereign, sustainable industrial transition. FluoRok has already shown its process works at pilot scale, and taking hydrogen fluoride out of fluorochemical production tackles a safety and supply problem the whole industry shares. We are pleased to join a strong group of investors supporting the team as it moves to industrial scale.
In the announcement, Abhiram Kannan, Ph.D., Head of Investment for Industrials and Mining, Bidra Innovation Ventures, said:
What drew us to FluoRok is that its process isn't tied to one product, but it is a platform with the potential to redefine how fluorochemicals are manufactured and become the new benchmark for the industry. The same chemistry applies to pharmaceutical and agrochemical building blocks, battery materials and inorganic fluorides, which gives the company several routes to commercial scale and a broad base of potential partners. We're pleased to back the team at this stage of its growth.
If you're researching potential backers in this space:
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Founder perspective
In the announcement, Dr Gabriele Pupo, CEO and Founder, FluoRok, said:
We are thrilled to welcome new investors on our journey to fundamentally change how the world makes fluorochemicals, with safer chemistry and better economics. Closing another oversubscribed round, backed by both new and existing investors from around the world, is a testament to the strength of our technology, the incredible commercial traction and the speed of execution of the FluoRok team. This funding will ensure FluoRok can swiftly move from start-up to scale-up and take a further step towards becoming a large-scale industrial manufacturer.
The company frames the round as the step needed to move from pilot demonstrations to repeatable industrial manufacture and to accelerate validations with customers.
The bigger picture
The financing sits at the intersection of materials, industrial chemistry and battery supply-chain resilience. Replacing hazardous reagents and diversifying feedstock sources aligns with broader European efforts to onshore critical materials and reduce dependence on concentrated global suppliers. The deal also underlines a trend among biotech investors to back chemistry-led deeptech solutions with industrial applications.
FluoRok’s mix of private venture capital, corporate backers with industrial infrastructure and public grant support illustrates how early deeptech manufacturing efforts in the UK are often funded: a combination of strategic corporate capital, specialist VCs and government programmes that aim to de-risk scale-up.
The funding will test whether an HF-free route can be commercialised at scale and, if successful, could shift where and how fluorochemicals are produced across Europe and beyond.
They've invested in FluoRok
Get to know these biotech investors
| Investors | Investment Focus | Startup Investments | Round Size | Connect |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Orano Venture Fund( ) | ||||
 Supernova Invest( ) Supernova Invest focuses on supporting high-growth, deeptech start-ups across In... Paris, France  | ||||
 Bidra Innovation Ventures( ) | ||||
 Oxford Science Enterprises( ) The firm focuses on investing in Life Sciences, Health Tech, and Deep Tech, prim... Oxford  | ||||
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 Volta Energy Technologies( ) Chicago, US  | ||||
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 EverQuest Capital Partners( ) | ||||
 CPI Enterprises( ) Cleveland, US | ||||
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