Hades Mining, a deeptech mining company based in Munich, has exited stealth mode and announced a €5.5 million pre-seed funding round led by Project A.
The demand for energy and critical minerals in Europe is escalating, fueled by advancements in AI, electrification, and industrial reshoring. Currently, Europe imports over 58.4 percent of its energy and more than 90 percent of critical minerals, which creates a dependency that leaves the continent vulnerable. Europe’s clean-energy transition and industrial foundation hinge on secure domestic access to these resources and stable baseload heat.
Many of these resources are located kilometers beneath the surface in areas that traditional methods struggle to access, and existing deposits often remain untapped due to technological limitations.
Munich-based Hades Mining was established to tackle this issue by entrepreneurs Dr. Max Werner (Founder & CEO, deep-tech entrepreneur with a military background), Björn Dressler (Founder & CTO, ex-COO of Isar Aerospace), and Dan Gengenbach (Founder & SVP Material Displacement, previously VP at Marvel Fusion and applied physicist).
The company is developing innovative drilling and subsurface access systems to directly manage projects, increasing resource potential and pushing the boundaries for ultra-deep extraction.
By penetrating ultra-deep heat reservoirs beneath Earth’s crust, Hades is able to access geothermal energy at a substantial scale and advance in-situ recovery (ISR) techniques. This low-impact process involves circulating fluids to extract minerals from deep rock formations without surface excavation.
Technical specifics are confidential at this time. Hades maintains independence by developing and operating mining and geothermal initiatives from licensing to production, bringing in partners and subcontractors only when they add speed, safety, or scale.
Unlike typical contractors who are compensated by the meter drilled, Hades earns revenue from the minerals, power, and heat it generates, maintaining long-term equity in each project. This model accelerates development, improves efficiency, and transforms each site into a platform for multiple high-value outputs.
Owning the entire process provides Hades with operational insights that directly contribute to technological progress, facilitating faster and more effective implementation. The company focuses on European projects that bolster strategic supply chains for EVs, renewable energy, semiconductors, and district heating, directly aiding the continent’s energy transition and industrial stability.
“Europe can’t lead the energy transition while depending on others for the building blocks of modern life,” said Dr. Max Werner, founder and CEO of Hades Mining. “We’re working hard to bring the entire process under one roof — from license to production — blending the speed and precision of tech with the resource owner’s responsibility and staying power. Our goal is to set a new standard for accessing deep minerals and energy in a way that’s transparent, sustainable, and future-focused.”
Project A led this investment round, with participation from Visionaries Tomorrow, Founders Factory (Venture Fund funded by Rio Tinto) and strategic angels from aerospace, energy, and advanced manufacturing sectors:
– Florian Seibel (Quantum Systems),
– Roman Hölzl (RobCo),
– Daniel Wiegand (formerly Lilium),
– Moritz von der Linden (Marvel Fusion),
– Hélène Huby (The Exploration Company),
– Chris O’Connor (formerly NIF),
– Dr. Nicolas Burkardt (Marvel Fusion),
– Viessmann Generations Group.
“Access to energy and critical minerals is essential for any nation to remain independent, secure, and productive — and to give itself the greatest chance of democratic stability,” said Jack Wang, Partner at Project A. “Hades is working to ensure Europe can depend on these resources for the long term. It’s a decisive step towards the resilience our continent needs. Energy is the next sovereign frontier.”
Thong Le Hoang, Founding Partner at Visionaries Tomorrow, stated: “One of the toughest challenges in applied deep tech is operating in extreme environments under real-world time, cost, and quality constraints. In energy and minerals, that means economically accessing superdeep reservoirs — a problem unsolved despite decades of incremental improvements. Hades is advancing the frontier with a breakthrough system built for unprecedented speed, scale, and precision. By taking a systems-level approach to target the industry’s true bottlenecks, not just isolated lab results, the team turns deep tech into a strategic asset for Europe, unlocking one of the most consequential economic and impact opportunities of our time.”
Hades intends to use the raised funds to develop its new technologies and explore the initial sites for energy and critical mineral extraction.