Friday, January 14, 2011

1366 again increases funding round, to $28M

By Kyle Alspach

In a second addition to its Series B round, solar-power technology developer 1366 Technologies Inc. has added another $2.4 million to the round, bringing it to $28.4 million, according to a regulatory filing.

The Lexington-based company is developing a process for creating solar wafers, the building blocks of solar panels, at a lower cost than through conventional processes. The company announced in October that it had raised $20 million in a Series B round from North Bridge Venture Partners and Polaris Venture Partners, both of Waltham, along with Korea’s Hanwha Chemical and Europe’s Ventizz Capital Fund IV LP.

The round jumped to $26 million in December, and has now increased a second time to $28.4 million, according to a Friday filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The round brings the company’s total financing to $45.9 million to date.

Earlier this month, 1366 was highlighted by U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu as one of the major success stories of a major clean energy research program, known as ARPA-E. 

Thanks in part to $4 million in ARPA-E funding, the company says it has rapidly developed an efficient new process for making solar wafers from silicon. The technology could slash the cost of wafers by up to 80 percent and be a powerful tool in making solar power competitive with coal, according to the firm.

In an interview in November, 1366 executives said the company plans to build its first commercial manufacturing plant in Massachusetts and expects to break ground by this fall.