Mitsui & Co. Global Investment (MGI) - Venture Capital, Start-Up

NEWS 2007

[04/30/2007]

Solaicx Lands $27.1M

May 7, 2007
By Adena DeMonte

Solaicx on Tuesday said it has received an additional $27.1 million in funding, giving the solar wafer developer the funds it needs to boost production.

Santa Clara, California-based Solaicx, a Red Herring North America 100 company for 2007, has developed a new process for making single-crystal silicon wafers-designed specifically for solar panels-more efficiently and cheaply.

"We're proven the technology,"said Solaicx CEO Bob Ford. "Now it boils down to actually doing it."

Solaicx hopes to overcome a global shortage of silicon by making more solar wafers-the building blocks that are made into solar cells, which in turn get wired together to make solar panels-from less silicon. The company has developed technology to manufacture silicon wafers in a continuous process as opposed to in batches, increasing efficiency by up to 30 percent and lowering production costs.

"Solaicx plays a crucial role in the solar energy value chain,"said venture capital firm D.E. Shaw Group in a statement.

The company's competitors include silicon wafer manufacturers that use the batch crystal process as well as up-and-coming alternative photovoltaic technologies such as thin-film solar. Up to 70 percent of all solar cells are made by the top 10 solar cell manufactures, all potential customers for Solaicx.

Solaicx's latest funding comes amid growing analyst concern that investors may have poured too much money into clean technologies. Mr. Ford, however, downplayed such concerns (see Energy Tech's Bubble Warning).

Solaicx will use the funding to move out of its pilot manufacturing plant into a larger space and to double its current staff of 45 employees by the end of the year.

D.E. Shaw joined Mitsui Ventures (www.mitsuivp.com) and former investors Applied Ventures (the venture capital arm of Applied Materials), Firsthand Capital Management, Big Sky Ventures, and Greenhouse Capital Partners, which all invested in the round. Solaicx had previously raised $17 million in funding (see Solaicx Snags Funds).

About Solaicx

Solaicx is a manufacturer of low-cost, high-efficiency silicon wafers for the photovoltaic (PV) industry. By designing and building equipment optimized for the high volume, continuous manufacture of high-performance, single crystal silicon ingots, Solaicx creates significant competitive advantages, in terms of cost and quality, which are then passed through the value chain of the silicon-based solar cell manufacturing market. For more information, visit http://www.solaicx.com

Press Contact:

Sonia Aggarwal, Antenna Group for Solaicx
415-977-1921
sonia@antennagroup.com