There is a certain kind of silence right before an industry gets uncomfortable. That quiet moment when the math finally works, the excuses dry up, and the old guard realizes the energy bill just got audited. Tobe Energy lives in that space. Oklahoma-based, hydrogen-obsessed, and deeply uninterested in wasting electrons, this company is building technology that does not negotiate with legacy inefficiency. It just shows the numbers and lets the room get quiet.
Founded March 2024 by Colby F. DeWeese and Dr. Caleb Lareau, with Louis Mounsey pulling commercial gravity into orbit, Tobe Energy feels like a deliberate collision of disciplines. Colby F. DeWeese brings chemical engineering discipline and over $75M in energy infrastructure scars. Dr. Caleb Lareau brings Harvard level computational rigor, Memorial Sloan Kettering precision, and a publishing record that lives in Nature, Cell, and Science. Louis Mounsey brings global project reality, the kind learned managing $100M+ energy work where optimism is not a strategy.
The technology is where things get disruptive without needing a microphone. A membrane-free electrolyzer built on resonant electrolysis principles, engineered like a finely tuned power system instead of a fragile science experiment. No membranes to degrade. No exotic materials to source. Just U.S. stainless steel and power electronics that know where losses like to hide. The result is 94.7% wall to plug efficiency on an LHV basis, roughly 35.2 kWh per kg of hydrogen, and capital costs about 75% lower than conventional systems with operating costs cut by more than 50%.
That performance changes the conversation. A 2,500 kg per day system saving roughly $4,500 per day in electricity at $0.10 per kWh. Over 1,000 runtime hours logged. Linear scaling that does not fall apart when you turn the dial. Hydrogen that behaves like an industrial input, not a subsidized science project waiting on its next press release.
Capital followed execution. Cortado Ventures led the $1.8M seed round in Sept 2025, joined by 46 VC, Techstars, Wavefunction VC, and angels who understand deep tech timelines. Dec 2025 added Hurricane Ventures and The University of Tulsa, closing a loop between alumni, research, and real commercialization. Production is already moving with a 10,000 sq ft manufacturing facility in Oklahoma and the first 100 commercial units in sight.
The Zeeco pilot at the Advanced Research Complex in Broken Arrow puts steel, pressure, and heat behind the theory. Heavy industry, ammonia, SAF, efuels, and 24/7 industrial power all sit squarely in the target zone. Pair that with IRA credits up to $3 per kg and hydrogen starts looking less like a future promise and more like a present line item. Tobe Energy is not loud. It is precise. And precision tends to travel far.
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