Solar cell material developer Innovalight Inc. has added an extra $5 million to the $42 million it has already raised since the startup was founded in 2002.
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 -- dubbed "silicon ink" -- were developed on a nanometric scale to be soluble, allowing for simpler application, to get around these problems.
The latest funding for the Silicon Valley startup came from Silicon Valley Bank and Leader Ventures. It was unclear how much of the $5 million was equity. Leader Ventures tends to offer blended debt and equity financing, while SVB is a lender of choice to tech startups.
When it announced its $28 million third round a year ago, the company said it didn't see the need to raise new funds in the near future. That round was led by Convexa Capital and joined by Scatec AS, Apax Partners, Arch Venture Partners, Harris & Harris Group Inc., Sevin Rosen Funds and Triton Ventures. - Olaf de Senerpont Domis
See Oct. 14 press release on Innovalight funding via Yahoo! Finance
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