Boston Power, a manufacturer of advanced lithium ion batteries for electric vehicles and network storage applications, has landed $ 60,000,000 fifth round of funding - a major victory for a company to the brink of mass commercial scale in emerging sectors automotive and services. It says it will use the money to rapidly grow its manufacturing, sales, marketing and R & D operations
Boston Power is a good example of a traditional battery company that has jumped on the new opportunities in clean energy markets. Initially focused on making long-lasting batteries for laptops and consumer electronics like laptops. It even has a supply agreement with a profit of Hewlett-Packard. But last spring, he released his first car in the lithium-ion battery.
In addition to developing its own batteries - waiting for the electric and hybrid electric vehicles flooding the market later this year and next (I think General Motors' Chevrolet Volt all-electric Nissan sheets) - Boston Power has partnered with car companies to go for several electric (the lame Saab, among others) to accelerate their journey to market.
Today announced the $ 60,000,000 would be sufficient for more than the labor supply doubled since Boston in the next three years, the company told the Boston Globe, but not all are based in the country. The company already operates several plants in Taiwan and is looking to further expansion in China, and perhaps Europe.
Last year, when it raised $ 9 million in capital, the company said it was looking to build a manufacturing plant in Auburn, Massachusetts, which employs 600 local workers. But these meal plans depends on Boston who received at least $ 100 million in federal incentive grants. This never happened, and the Auburn plant has been scrapped.
Since this is the fifth round of the financial institution - with the capital now totaling about $ 185 million - the question of the future is more salient than ever. Boston Will Power end up selling their technology to another, the larger interest of the battery? Or is the release of the plug-car market will be sufficient to carry out profitability with its existing runway?
The company faces a lot of tough competition. The automotive battery business is increasingly populated with A123Systems going public last year, and the finalists, as Valencia The technology also capture market share. The industry-wide network can also be difficult to enter, with Panasonic, Hitachi, Siemens and many other large companies develop their own solutions for the storage of public services, a more pressing need now that intermittent sources of renewable energy such as solar and wind are put online.
However, investors are sticking by the company. The recent round of funding came from Oak Investment Partners, Foundation Asset Management, Capital Partners and Venrock Gabriel risk - all of whom participated in the round of $ 9,000,000 for the segment of Boston in June.
