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CPI Enterprises backs FluoRok as part of £22.8 million Series A funding round to scale HF-free fluorochemical manufacturing

4 Nov 2026

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Fluorok, a UK company building a novel manufacturing platform for fluorochemicals that bypasses the need for highly hazardous hydrogen fluoride (HF), has closed an oversubscribed $30 million (£22.8 million) Series A financing round. The round was led by Orano Venture Fund/Supernova Invest, alongside investment 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 equity round exceeded its original target, building on the $14 million (£11 million) raised in previous rounds and more than $13 million (£10 million) in UK and European public funding secured to date. It also included participation from several angel investors, smaller investment partners - EverQuest Capital Partners, CPI Enterprises (also a scale-up partner), WS Investment - and approximately $1.3 million (£1 million) in grant funding from Innovate UK through its Investor Partnerships programme.

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.

Dr Gabriele Pupo

CEO and Founder, FluoRok

The investment builds on an established relationship between CPI and FluoRok. In 2025, CPI joined a consortium led by FluoRok, alongside Coventry University, to deliver a first-of-a-kind UK demonstrator plant for LiPF₆ production, supported through the Department for Business and Trade’s DRIVE35 programme delivered by the Advanced Propulsion Centre UK (APC).

Hannah Wade, Managing Director of Investments, CPI, said:

FluoRok is tackling an important challenge in fluorochemical manufacturing with a technology that has the potential to strengthen supply chains across batteries, pharmaceuticals and other critical industries.

By combining investment with CPI’s technical expertise and scale-up capabilities, we’re helping accelerate the commercialisation of innovations that can deliver long-term economic and industrial impact, while supporting the growth of new manufacturing capability and economic value across the north of England.

Hanna Wade

Managing Director of Investments, CPI

Why fluorochemicals need a safer and better way to be made

About one in five medicines and one in three agrochemicals on the market contain fluorine, and fluorochemicals are key components of lithium-ion batteries. Despite their importance, conventional fluorochemical manufacturing still relies on a 250-year-old process that depends on HF—one of the most hazardous chemicals in industrial use—and high-purity mined fluorspar (calcium fluoride), a critical raw material sourced from a very limited number of countries, predominantly China.

HF is highly toxic and difficult to handle, meaning that conventional production requires specialised infrastructure, significant capital investment and complex permitting, limiting where new manufacturing capacity can be established.

FluoRok is addressing these constraints with its safer and lower-cost HF-free process that uses mechanical activation rather than acid and high temperatures. The technology runs on off-the-shelf industrial equipment for rapid scale-up and can use lower-grade mined fluoride or fluoride recovered from industrial waste streams. This reduces capital and operating costs, enables production closer to end markets and lessens reliance on a handful of supplying regions.

FluoRok’s initial markets are inorganic fluorides for pharmaceutical and agrochemical applications, and lithium hexafluorophosphate (LiPF₆), the most common electrolyte salt in lithium-ion batteries, with further fluorochemicals to follow.

What this funding will enable

FluoRok has completed pilot qualifications and gained strong commercial traction with key customers. The funding will support its transition to industrial scale: building demonstrator facilities for its reagents and lithium-ion battery electrolyte salts to prove repeatable manufacturing, expanding the team to support scale-up, validating its products with customers at scale, and broadening commercial partnerships to accelerate global deployment.

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.

Florian de Beauchaine

Investment Manager, Orano Venture Fund/Supernova Invest

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.

Abhiram Kannan, Ph.D.

Head of Investment for Industrials and Mining, Bidra Innovation Ventures

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