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Heliatek Receives $27 Million to Continue Development of Organic Solar Cells

New funding earmarked for building an initial production facility in Dresden

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By: DAVID SAVASTANO

Contributing Editor, Coatings World and Ink World, Coatings World and Ink World Magazine

Heliatek GmbH, a pioneer in the field of organic solar cells, is receiving US$ 27 million (€18 million) in a second round of financing under the lead of the pan-European venture capital firm Wellington Partners.

Also participating in this round are the industrial investor Bosch and the corporate venture capital investors RWE Innogy Ventures and BASF Venture Capital, the High-Tech-Gründerfonds, eCAPITAL entrepreneurial Partners AG, the Technologiegründerfonds Sachsen Start-up GmbH & Co. KG and GP Bullhound Sidecar.

Heliatek will be utilizing the new funding primarily to build an initial production facility in Dresden. In this step and right through to mass production, the company will be using its proprietary tandem technology to efficiently produce, flexible and very lightweight PV modules on a film substrate.

Their weight will be merely 500 grams per square meter, instead of today’s customary 20 kilograms per square meter. This will open up a forward-looking market for mobile applications, for architectural solutions and for independently supplying regions with weak infrastructures.

“We believe that truly break-through 3rd generation technologies that bring PV well beyond grid parity will be the success stories of the future, and we think Heliatek is excellently positioned to capture that opportunity,” explained Bart Markus, general partner of Wellington Partners.

“We want to help to commercialize this innovative technology through our venture capital investment in Heliatek,” added Crispin Leick, executive director of RWE Innogy Ventures. “Organic photovoltaics has the potential to deliver considerable cost savings given the low amount of energy used and the unlimited availability of the raw materials.”

“Over the course of the past two years, Heliatek has made impressive progress in terms of the efficiency and service life of its organic solar cells,” said Dr. Alexander Flaig, vice president corporate research at Robert Bosch, speaking on behalf of the other investors. “The time has now come to also show just how cost-efficiently these cells can be manufactured under industrial conditions. This round of financing will enable the company to execute this important step – from the research laboratory to an initial production facility.”

“With this new round of financing, we have now created an opportunity to take advantage of our technology edge in this forward-looking market in order to be one of the first suppliers to ramp up a production operation,” Heliatek CEO Dr. Andreas Rückemann explained. “We are very proud that we have been able to receive the support of the industrial company Bosch and the venture capital investors RWE Innogy Ventures, BASF Venture Capital, Wellington Partners, eCAPITAL and Technologiegründerfonds Sachsen.”

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