Cortado Ventures leads $1.8M investment in green hydrogen pioneer Tobe Energy

OKLAHOMA CITY — Cortado Ventures has led a $1.8 million seed funding round in Tobe Energy, an OKC-based energy innovator developing a next-generation green hydrogen electrolysis system.

Tobe’s breakthrough technology achieves 94.7% efficiency, reduces operating costs by 50+% and enables domestic manufacturing with readily available U.S. stainless steel, the company says, setting the stage for scalable, affordable and sustainable decarbonization across heavy industry and emerging sectors like AI-powered data centers.

Additional investors in the round include 46 VC, through its Scissortail and Hurricane funds, Techstars, marking one of the accelerator’s largest follow-on investments to date, Wavefunction VC, a deep tech fund led by former SpaceX engineer and repeat deep tech founder Jamie Gull, and a select group of seasoned angel investors. Together with Cortado Ventures, this coalition brings a powerful combination of capital, industry expertise and strategic relationships to help Tobe Energy scale its technology and accelerate market adoption.

Additionally, Tobe Energy has signed a memorandum of understanding with Zeeco to collaborate on its first hydrogen production pilot plant at Zeeco’s Advanced Research Complex in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.

Tobe Energy CEO and founder Colby DeWeese, a chemical engineer and natural gas project manager turned clean energy entrepreneur, built Tobe Energy on a legacy of innovation. He founded the company after pioneering a new electrolysis process—a leap in efficiency akin to moving from incandescent bulbs to LEDs.

DeWeese grew up prototyping electronics with his late father, the inventor of the TiVo, before graduating from the University of Tulsa and beginning his career in oil and gas. He managed $75M+ projects across the oil, gas and petrochemical sectors, honing a knack for solving technical problems under pressure and delivering systems that perform in the real world. Disillusioned by systemic inefficiencies in traditional energy systems, DeWeese pivoted to renewables—first hydrogen combustion, then green hydrogen production—and has since devoted his career to clean-tech solutions that work in demanding industrial settings. Before launching Tobe, DeWeese served as principal process engineer at Hydrogen Technologies, where he led the design and delivery of the first zero-emission hydrogen boiler of its kind.

“My dad taught me early on how to build things that solve real problems—and that mindset never left me,” DeWeese said. “With this technology, we’ve reimagined the internal workings of electrolysis to dramatically reduce waste heat and cost. And we’ve done it with American-made materials and a prototype that’s already running strong. It’s not just about innovation—it’s about building a more secure, scalable path to decarbonization.”

Tobe’s system operates at a roughly 75% reduction of capital costs compared to conventional electrolyzers. The company’s zero-emission hydrogen prototype has already logged 1,000 hours of runtime, with applications ranging from steel manufacturing and fertilizer production to long-term e-fuels development. Using its hydrogen in combination with atmospheric carbon dioxide, Tobe can create synthetic natural gas alternatives that are both emissions-free and, with federal tax credits, projected to be cheaper than fossil fuels.

The technology also shows promise in next-gen energy storage — especially for AI data centers. By generating hydrogen during off-peak periods and converting it back to power, Tobe’s systems offer an ultra-efficient, zero-emission alternative to lithium-ion battery banks.

“Tobe’s technology represents a category-defining leap in clean energy,” said Caleb Lareau, a Harvard Ph.D. and co-founder of Tobe Energy. “It’s rare to see a system that delivers both high efficiency and economic viability at this scale. We’re opening the door to hydrogen’s real potential—not just for fuel, but as the backbone of 21st-century energy storage.”