Prudent Energy, a Chinese developer of energy storage systems, earlier this week announced that it had raised approximately $22million in a third round of financing led by Northern Light Venture Capital. The Series C financing also included new investor Sequoia Capital China, the Chinese investment fund of Silicon Valley fund Sequoia Capital and returning investors Draper Fisher Jurvetson and DT Capital.
Prudent’s VRB technology can store and then discharge renewable energy during periods of high demand. The company says it will use the new cash to scale production at its new Beijing plant and to grow U.S. sales.
Also, yesterday Konarka Technologies, a developer of organic solar cells, based in Lowell, Mass., has received a $20 million strategic investment from Japan’s Konica Minolta, a maker of office printers, scanners and other technologies. The investment includes an R&D agreement for the two companies to develop and distribute organic thin-film photovoltaic.
Konarka’s organic solar cells are cheaper to make than the silicon-based cells that currently dominate the market. They also can be deployed anywhere, on clothes, for example and could even be used to power the office equipments manufactured by Konica…
PeHUB reports that Konarka previously raised around $175 million from 3i Group, Ardesta, Angeleno Group, Chevron Technology Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Good Energies, Massachusetts Green Energy Fund, NGEN Partners, New Enterprise Associates, Presidio STX, Siemens Venture Capital, Total Gas & Power and Vanguard Ventures.