Monday, March 21, 2011

BigBelly swells with biggest-ever order

By Rodney H. Brown

Solar trash compactor maker BigBelly Solar Inc. of Needham has landed its biggest ever single contract – a $2.5 million order from the city of Chicago.

As part of a new litter abatement program in the downtown area of the Windy City, Chicago, over the course of the contract, will install 1,600 BigBelly systems. Initially, the contract calls for installing 400 of the units in downtown, which BigBelly Vice President of Marketing Richard Kennelly calls the second-largest initial order for the company, behind the 500 initially purchased by the City of Philadelphia in 2009. That contract capped at 1,000 units with a 2010 purchase of an additional 500.

In February of 2010, BigBelly brought on board networking technology veteran Barry Fougere as chief operating officer. Fougere, former CEO of wireless networking equipment maker Colubris Networks Inc., came to BigBelly from Heidrick & Struggles, a Chicago-based executive search and professional services firm.

Venture-backed BigBelly raised $3.2 million in equity in May of 2009. The investors in that round were not identified, but backers in BigBelly, which started life in 2003 as Seahorse Power Company Inc., include Massachusetts Green Energy Fund and Jim Gordon, president of Cape Wind Associates. Dan Goldman, current chief financial officer of GreatPoint Energy also contributed to the company as an individual investor.