Ultracapacitor manufacturer Ioxus, Inc. (earlier post) has received a total of $21 million from Energy Technology Ventures (a GE-NRG Energy-ConocoPhillips joint venture), Northwater Capital through its Northwater Intellectual Property Fund, Aster Capital (representing Alstom, Schneider Electric and Rhodia) and return investor Braemar Energy Ventures in its Series B round.
According to Mark McGough, Ioxus’ CEO, the round was oversubscribed. McGough said that the company will use the funding for three main purposes:
- Expanding R&D;
- Expanding manufacturing capability; and
- Expanding sales and markets overseas.
The beauty of the investor group is that it highlights and underscores the rank ordering of target markets that we had already identified. These are companies that have business in the exact kinds of fields that are a good fit for our products, such as wind turbines. It’s really a hand-in-glove kind of fit for strategic markets.
—Mark McGough
Ioxus is developing lighter, more compact and cost-efficient energy storage technologies that will be relied on to complement or replace rechargeable batteries in a wide variety of consumer and industrial products such as handheld electronic devices, hybrid electric vehicles, wind turbines, aircraft and medical equipment. These applications align well with Energy Technology Ventures’ reach across the energy sector, and GE’s additional breadth in healthcare, industrial and aviation, offering many opportunities for commercial and technical cooperation.
—Kevin Skillern, venture capital leader at GE Energy Financial Services and Energy Technology Ventures