Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Nanosolar and Vaperma

  • Bay Area thin-films startup Nanosolar announced a $75mm raise yesterday, bringing the total amount raised by the company up to $100mm. Existing investors Mohr Davidow, Benchmark, OnPoint and Mitsui participated, as did new investors SAC Capital and GLG Partners (both are hedge funds), Swiss Re, Grazia Equity, Capricorn Management, Beck, and a couple of angel investors' investment groups. Matt Marshall has a very nice profile on the company (there's also a nice writup in VentureWire today, for those with access), which mentions Konarka as a thin-film competitor but doesn't mention other CIGS startups in the bay area that are also building production facilities -- CIGS is starting to look like a tight horserace.
  • On the ethanol front, Quebec-based Vaperma announced a C$7mm Series A led by SAM Private Equity. Other investors included BDC Capital, FIDD and an unnamed angel group. Vaperma's advanced membranes are designed to improve water separation/ distillation in fuel-related processes, including claims of saving 40% of energy costs in ethanol production.

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