August 30, 2007 — HelioVolt Corp., producer of thin-film solar products, recently closed $77 million in Series B financing. Paladin Capital Group and the Masdar Clean Tech Fund co-led the round with support from returning investor New Enterprise Associates as well as Solucar Energia, Morgan Stanley Principal Investments, Sunton United Energy, and Yellowstone Capital. Funds will be used to build HelioVolt’s first factory and bring Copper Indium Gallium Selenide (CIGS) thin-film enabled solar products to market.
“CIGS thin film is emerging as one of the most exciting frontiers in cost-effective solar technology. We believe that HelioVolt has the technical understanding and market vision to achieve near term successes and deliver on long term potential,” said Ken Pentimonti, principal at Paladin Capital Group.
Nadim Barakat, Managing Director at Credit Suisse and the general partner of the Masdar Clean Tech Fund, added, “With significant market opportunities emerging across today’s entire renewable energy sector, HelioVolt’s proprietary FASST manufacturing process represents the breakthrough that can establish solar energy as the most economical — and practical — choice for distributed electricity generation.”
“Clean energy is a global need, and we are proud to have the support of a premier group of financial and market partners as we target those international markets,” said B.J. Stanbery, Ph.D., CEO of HelioVolt. “This funding round marks the next step in our sustained path toward developing and delivering streamlined CIGS-based systems for both conventional solar modules and building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) products.”
Building off of founder and CEO Dr. B.J. Stanbery’s experience with high-efficiency photovoltaics, HelioVolt is commercializing its FASST process to manufacture CIGS, considered by many to be nature’s most efficient photovoltaic material. Recently lauded as a 2006 Wall Street Journal Innovation of the Year and a Time Magazine Best Invention of 2006, HelioVolt’s CIGS thin film technology is 100 times thinner, and 100 times more absorbent, than traditional silicon and 10 times faster to produce than alternative CIGS manufacturing methods.