Konarka powers up with $45M for solar “plastic”
Solar innovator Konarka Technologies took in $45 million in strategic funding to further develop its new product for sunlight conversion called Power Plastic and bring it to market. Oil and gas company Total provided the round, acquiring a 20 percent stake in Lowell, Mass.-based Konarka. It hopes to integrate the plastic solar film into products made and used by its subsidiaries, including Hutchinson, Sartomer and Bostik.
The Power Plastic line is prized for being lightweight, flexible and easily scalable for a variety of purposes. Its current conversion rate of sunlight to energy is six percent, but future incarnations should up that figure.
Previously, Konarka had raised $115 million from a large flock of investors including 3i Group, Chevron, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, New Enterprise Associates and Vanguard Venture Partners, among others. It last raised capital in the fall of 2007, bringing in another $45 million from Good Energies and Mackenzie Financial. The company says it will keep the current strategic round open but hasn’t released a target amount.
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About the Author, Camille Ricketts
Camille is the lead writer for GreenBeat. She came to VentureBeat from Google where she worked on its traditional platforms team, particularly in TV. Before that, she was a reporter for the Wall Street Journal in New York and London. Follow her on Twitter at @camillericketts, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.
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