Medford, Ore.,-based UpWind Solutions has raised $28.8 million in a Series B financing led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. MissionPoint Capital Partners also participated in the financing as a returning investor.
UpWind provides operations and maintenance (O&M) services for North American-based wind farms. As more wind farms come online and manufacturer warranties covering operating wind farms expire over the next few years, we expect the O&M business to grow significantly. That includes maintenance and repair service providers, and manufacturers of parts for turbine components such as gearboxes and generators. This will assure new, previously untapped revenues for companies like UpWind.
UpWind Solutions plans to use this latest round of financing to fund potential acquisitions and grow its overall servicing capacity — see here for the full press release.
Also, Solar Junction, a developer of high efficiency solar cells for the concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) market, closed a $13.33 million third round of funding led by New Enterprise Associates.
Solar Junction will use the cash for research and development and scale production. Returning investors included Advanced Technology Ventures and Draper Fisher Jurvetson.