Jan 6 2010
Innovalight, Inc., a privately-held firm selling silicon ink-based high efficiency solar cell materials and technology, today announced that the company has raised $18 million in additional capital. This new round of capital will be used to expand the company's proprietary silicon ink production for customers.
This series D financing was led by EDB Investments (EDBI) of Singapore. Also joining this investment round is Vertex Venture Holdings, the venture subsidiary of Temasek Holdings, Singapore. All existing investors - Apax Partners, ARCH Venture Partners, Convexa Capital, Harris & Harris Group, Sevin Rosen Funds and Triton Ventures participated in the round.
Innovalight's proprietary nanotechnology-based silicon ink and processing technologies allow crystalline silicon solar cell manufacturers to dramatically boost output capacity, solar cell performance as well as reduce costs with a simplified additional step to already installed manufacturing lines. The opportunity is significant - crystalline silicon solar cell technology accounts for 86% of the commercial solar panel market today, according to Paula Mints, principal analyst for Navigant Consulting, Inc., a leading solar industry research firm.
"With its elegant and cost-effective technological platform to improve performance of silicon-based photovoltaics, Innovalight is well positioned to take advantage of opportunities in the fast growing solar market," said Swee-Yeok Chu, CEO of EDB Investments. "The company fits well with EDBI's investment interest in highly promising growth stage clean technology companies globally and helping them grow their businesses and operations in Asia through Singapore," she added.
"This new injection of capital will allow Innovalight to expand sufficiently to support our numerous customer engagements," said Conrad Burke, president and chief executive officer. "We are delighted to add EDB Investments and Vertex Venture Holdings to our already strong syndicate of investors," he added.
Innovalight recently announced record 18 percent conversion efficiency with their silicon ink solar cell platform. The industry standard size solar cell results were independently certified by two of the world's recognized solar cell testing centers, the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and The Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) in Germany. The company has a development roadmap to ultimately bring conversion efficiencies of solar cells over 20% with their platform silicon ink and processing technologies.