The world’s first clean-hydrogen investment fund “could face a real challenge” after raising less than half as much as money as it planned in its initial public offering (IPO).

HydrogenOne Capital Growth had aimed to raise £250m ($348m) from investors, but only managed to reel in £107.35m, just above its minimum raise of £100m. The company is expected to be listed on the London Stock Exchange from 30 July, with net proceeds from the issue due to be about £105.2m.

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Laith Khalaf, financial analyst at asset manager AJ Bell, said the new trust “just crept over the line”.

“The funding gap highlights the difficulty providers are having launching investment trusts in certain areas, even those as hot as clean energy, because investors aren't willing to take the leap of faith that the trusts will start trading on a premium when they launch on the market,” he said.

Jayna Rana, analyst at financial data firm Quoted Data, said: “Hydrogen is likely to play a vital role in both energy storage and fuel for heavy transport and industry and so is becoming increasingly important. However, if there is any initial disappointment within the portfolio and the trust goes to a discount, it could face a real challenge.”

“This IPO marks the start for the first London-listed fund dedicated to the clean hydrogen sector,” said HydrogenOne chaieman Simon Hogan.

“HydrogenOne is for energy investors who want to move beyond net zero now, not later, and deploy substantial growth capital into the solutions underpinning the energy transition.”

Co-founder JJ Traynor told Recharge earlier this month that the fund will at first concentrate on green hydrogen production, and that the “demand pull" was coming from companies in the industrial gas space wanting to clean up their use of grey unabated H2.