Hades Mining, a startup specializing in next-generation drilling systems, has announced the completion of a pre-seed financing round of €5.5 million. The round was led by Project A, with participation from Visionaries Tomorrow, Founders Factory, and a number of strategic angel investors. Individual investors include Florian Seibel (Quantum Systems), Roman Hölzl (RobCo), Daniel Wiegand (formerly Lilium), Moritz von der Linden, Hélène Huby (The Exploration Company), and Nicolas Burkardt (Marvel Fusion). The Viessmann Generations Group also participated.
The founders Max Werner (CEO), Björn Dressler (CTO), and Dan Gengenbach (SVP Material Displacement) bring years of experience from deeptech, aerospace, and laser physics. Together, they are developing a vertically integrated model that encompasses the entire process from licensing through drilling to production management. The startup generates revenue not through meters drilled, but directly from the energy and heat generated and the minerals extracted.
Thong Le Hoang, partner at Visionaries Tomorrow, explains:
“One of the greatest challenges in applied deeptech is operating in extreme environments under real-world time, cost, and quality constraints. In the energy and minerals sector, this means economical access to ultra-deep deposits – a problem that remains unsolved despite decades of incremental improvements. Hades is pushing boundaries with a groundbreaking system designed for unprecedented speed, scalability, and precision. Through a systemic approach that focuses not just on isolated laboratory results but targets the true bottlenecks of the industry, the team is turning deeptech into a strategic advantage and unlocking one of the most significant economic and impactful opportunities of our time.”
Focus on energy and critical raw materials
Europe’s demand for energy and raw materials is growing – driven by AI, electrification, and the reshoring of industrial production. At the same time, Europe imports energy and critical raw materials. Hades Mining wants to reduce this dependency through its own projects.
The technology developed by Hades enables access to ultra-deep heat storage as well as the use of in-situ recovery (ISR), where minerals are extracted from deep rock layers using liquid circulation. This technique is considered environmentally friendly because it requires no open-pit mining.
Angel investors Florian Seibel, Moritz von der Linden, Roman Hölzl, and Daniel Wiegand emphasize:
“As founders building Europe’s next generation of energy, robotics, and defense systems, we know one thing: without access to critical minerals and sovereign energy, none of that can scale limitlessly. Hades Mining is tackling the problem at its root. It’s a bold industrial bet to secure the raw materials our society needs to continue growing. That’s why we invested.”
With the fresh capital, Hades Mining plans to further develop its drilling technology and explore initial locations for energy and raw materials projects in Europe. The goal is to strengthen supply security, the energy transition, and industrial resilience in Europe in the long term.
