Innovalight secures $28M

Solar-cell materials developer Innovalight Inc. has raised $28 million in a Series C financing that should help the company build out its manufacturing capabilities and launch its "silicon ink" product in the second half of 2009.

The third round was led by new investor Convexa Capital of Oslo, Norway, joined by Scatec AS, also of Oslo. Returning investors Apax Partners of Menlo Park, Calif., Arch Venture Partners of Chicago, Harris & Harris Group Inc. of Los Angeles, Sevin Rosen Funds of Menlo Park, Calif., and Triton Ventures LLC of Austin, Texas, also contributed to the financing.

Conrad Burke, Innovalight's president and CEO, said that the Series C, which gives the company $42 million in venture funding, came at an increase in valuation to the prior round. He added that the company doesn't have plans to raise additional capital from private investors in the near future, as it still has a "substantial amount" of funds from its prior round in the bank.

"[The current round] gets us to the key milestones from a commercial product point of view," said Burke. "There are other methods of raising capital that we'll look at in the future, but certainly this is all we need right now."

Founded in 2002, the company received $14 million in its two prior rounds, including a $7.5 million second round in May 2006 and an initial round of $6.5 million in December 2004.

Burke and his venture-backers are betting that Innovalight's lead product -- silicon ink -- will revolutionize solar panel production and provide a big boost to the solar industry.

Innovalight is developing silicon ink-based printed solar cells. The company's technology utilizes liquid processing of silicon to produce higher-efficiency solar cells that can cost less than half the price of the solar modules in the market today.

Traditional solar electrical generating cells use rigid crystalline silicon wafers that can be difficult to work with and expensive because of competing demand from the semiconductor industry. Innovalight's materials were developed on a nanometric scale to be soluble, allowing for simpler application, in order to circumvent these problems.

As part of the ramp up toward next year's product launch, the company will be moving from Santa Clara, Calif., into a new 30,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Sunnyvale, Calif.

With less than 30 employees, Innovalight also plans to use the capital to bring engineering talent and fill key management positions. "We have a very aggressive recruitment plan for the company," said Burke. "We'll certainly triple the headcount between now and the end of next year."

Joining the company's board of directors as part of the financing was Alf Bjorseth, chairman of Scatec AS. Bjorseth is the founder and former president and CEO of solar energy company Renewable Energy Corp.

Innovalight called on DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary US LLP for counsel. The investors used Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.