Overdue update

Picked a bad week to fall behind on deal updates, it would appear...

• CPV developer SolFocus announced $52mm in new funding this week, and they may not be done pulling together what could be a $70mm round when completed. According to PE Week Wire, $27.4mm of the new financing is targeted at launching a new Spanish subsidiary, and $24.6mm is Series B financing into the parent company. Insider NEA led the round again, with participation by Moser Baer India, Metasystem Group, NGEN Partners, Yellowstone Capital, David Gelbaum, and other investors. SolFocus also recently acquired a Spanish tracker company, Inspira.
  

• Also according to PEWW, secretive solar startup Sierra Nevada Solar has raised $4.5mm in financing. AlarmClock reports that the financing was provided by EarthBright, a San Francisco-based cleantech investment group funded and led by Jonathan Bonanno, chairman of the Cleantech Investment Committee of the Keiretsu Forum, as well as angel investor Ryan Scott.

• Plextronics, which is developing organic PV cells, OLEDs and RFID technology, has raised $20.6mm in Series B financing -- Matt Marshall has details. Strategic investor Solvay Group led the round, which included participation by Firelake Capital, Birchmere Ventures, Draper Triangle Ventures, and Newlin Investment Company. The round brings the total investment raised by the company to $37mm over the last five years.

• Jonathan Shieber in today's Clean Technology Investor has an interesting column about the birth of Fisker Automotive Inc., a new plug-in hybrid vehicle startup with plans to introduce a four-door car in 2009. Shieber reports that the company, which has been founded by car designer Henrik Fisker and Quantum Fuel Systems CEO Alan Niedzwiecke (they met during the course of a used car transaction), is looking for outside capital -- and they estimate they'll need $100mm over several rounds to make a go of it. Interesting benchmark for EV and related startups... Of course, the obvious question is: What was an auto designer doing buying a used Land Rover, shouldn't he be driving around in some fancy prototype?
  

• Also according to Shieber (this time in VWire), BC-based General Fusion has raised $1.2mm in seed financing to pursue the commercialization of the company's small fusion reactor technology. We briefly mentioned fusion in passing last week, alluding to the fact that General Fusion isn't alone in pursuing the commercialization of "hot" fusion approaches. If one of the entrepreneurial teams driving toward this goal could achieve "net positive" energy from any of these approaches, it would potentially be a big game-changer... There is more info in this interesting article about Canadian clean tech ("the sexiest area of the North American venture-capital world"), including hints that the company may be looking to raise additional capital.

• UK-based Solarcentury has raised a GBP13.5mm round of financing, co-led by zouk ventures and Good Energies. Vantania Holdings Ltd and Foursome Investments, along with existing investors VantagePoint Venture Partners and Scottish and Southern Energy, also participated.
  

• PEWW also broke the news that fuel cell backup power system ClearEdge Power has raised $6.47mm of an anticipated $19.47mm Series C. Applied Ventures is mentioned as an investor.

• Tonga Capital Corp, d/b/a Momentum Biofuels, has raised a $4.3mm PIPE.

• Climate Change Capital, a private equity firm based in the UK, has closed on a $200mm Climate Change Capital Private Equity Fund, which will invest in expansion-stage startups all the way up to buyouts.
  

• CTI also reported this week that Terrabon, a cellulosic ethanol technology developer, has raised $1.25mm in seed financing, bringing their total investment from "individual investors" up to $4.5mm.

• PEWW reported last week that PV startup Solexant (with technology to "harvest energy from the entire solar spectrum") has raised a $4.3mm Series A, with backing from Trident Capital, Firelake Capital, and X/Seed Capital.

• Wind power software company 3Tier has raised a $2mm second round from Good Energies.
  

... And even more updates to follow soon...