Sakowin, founded in 2017 in Provence, set out to make hydrogen from natural gas without releasing carbon dioxide. It used microwave plasma to split methane into hydrogen and solid carbon, so that the carbon ends up as a powder that can be used in cement or construction rather than in the air.
The European Innovation Council granted €2,500,000 towards South Beach, a €5.44 million project that ran from October 2022 to June 2025, and in January 2024 the EIC Fund invested €1.2 million in a €4 million round. According to the CORDIS report, "the first South Beach 100 kW Demonstrator was built and shipped to an industrial user". On 2 April 2026 a court opened receivership, fixing 24 March as the date Sakowin stopped paying its debts, and on 15 June 2026 it ordered liquidation, according to the official gazette notices.
Company file
- Legal entity
- Sakowin SAS, SIREN 824 658 769
- Founded
- 2 January 2017
- Founder and president
- Gérard Gatt
- Technology
- Microwave plasma decomposition of methane into hydrogen and solid carbon
- Investors
- Vol-V, EIC Fund, management
- EIC project
- South Beach, 1 Oct 2022 to 30 Jun 2025, closed
- Insolvency
- Payments stopped 24 Mar 2026; receivership 2 Apr; liquidation 15 Jun 2026
What Happened to Sakowin
The French official gazette, BODACC, records that the commercial court opened receivership (redressement judiciaire) on 2 April 2026 and converted it into judicial liquidation on 15 June 2026, appointing a liquidator in Grasse. The register also flagged that the company's equity had fallen below half its share capital. No buyer for the technology has been announced. In January 2024, when it raised €4 million, Sakowin had said it aimed to commercialise a standardised 100 kW module by the end of 2025.
The Technology: Splitting Methane With Microwaves
The CORDIS report describes the reaction "CH4 ➨ C + 2 H2" driven by microwave plasma at atmospheric pressure, a 6 kW laboratory unit, an industrial test bed, a 100 kW Alpha prototype with carbon recovery and a certified 100 kW Beta demonstrator. The shipped demonstrator was to supply hydrogen on site for an industrial enamelling oven, with the carbon recovered for cement and construction uses. The report presents the process as "an efficient alternative" to steam reforming, electrolysis and other pyrolysis methods; no efficiency or cost figures are given.
"L'EIC Fund est devenu un investisseur majeur dans les deeptechs."
Svetoslava Georgieva, chair of the EIC Fund board, on the Sakowin investment, January 2024What the EIC Project Promised, and What CORDIS Shows
South Beach promised "CO2-free, on-demand, on-site production of low-cost green hydrogen". It delivered plasma models, prototypes and one shipped demonstrator. It did not report hydrogen output, running hours or cost per kilogram, and its final report listed "securing financial resources for commercialization" among the conditions for success. Those resources did not arrive.
- 100 kW demonstratorDeliveredBuilt and shipped.
- Low-cost hydrogen shownNot shownNo cost data.
- Commercial module by end 2025MissedNot announced.
- A viable companyFailedLiquidated June 2026.
The Last Round
The January 2024 round brought €2.5 million from Vol-V, €1.2 million from the EIC Fund and €300,000 from management, to launch an optimisation programme with ten industrial partners. Earlier pilots had involved Saint-Gobain and other industrial groups. Twenty-six months later the company was insolvent.
The Money
Sakowin's net losses recorded by Pappers rose from €0.84 million in 2022 to €1.60 million in 2023 and €2.14 million in 2024. No new round was announced before the company stopped paying its debts in March 2026.
What cannot be checked
How the demonstrator performed, what the EIC Fund will recover from its €1.2 million, and whether any buyer will take over the technology are not public.
Why Europe Should Care
The EIC funded Sakowin with a grant and with equity, and the company reached a working 100 kW demonstrator. It failed nine months after the project ended, before the commercial module it had promised.
What the project promised
CO2-free, on-demand, on-site production of low-cost green hydrogen.
What the record shows
One 100 kW demonstrator shipped, no cost data, and liquidation in June 2026.
The Verdict
A prototype, then the end
South Beach took Sakowin's plasma process from the laboratory to a demonstrator in an industrial setting. The company did not raise the money to commercialise it, and the EU's grant and equity now sit in a liquidation.
Sakowin, its liquidator and the EIC have not been asked for comment for this article. It is based entirely on public records and published statements, linked throughout.
