Pierre-Etienne Franc bets big on hydrogen; his investment fund FiveT Hydrogen is aiming to raise €1bn for the ‘disruptive’ technology by summer 2022

After 25 years with Air Liquide, Pierre-Etienne Franc made the bold move to leave the company this month and set out on his own in pursuit of what he says is his passion, hydrogen. Franc, former co-secretary of the Hydrogen Council, is now front and centre of the first pureplay clean hydrogen investment fund, FiveT Hydrogen, which is aiming to act as a catalyst in the scaling of the global hydrogen economy. 

“In the end, my career was so much into hydrogen, almost more than into Air Liquide. And so it was a natural next move for me to try to bring the last piece of the puzzle that needs to be put in place for the hydrogen economy to work,” he told H2 View in an exclusive interview. “We all know it’s [hydrogen] a disruptive topic, and it’s a topic I’ve become progressively addicted to over the past 10 years.”