Wakonda Technologies, a company that is developing an inexpensive, patent-pending material that enables the production of high performance solar cells, announced on July 16th that it raised a $9.5 million round of series A venture capital financing from (Advanced Technology Ventures (ATV), General Catalyst Partners, Polaris Venture Partners, Applied Ventures (the venture capital arm of Applied Materials) and the Massachusetts Green Energy Fund.
"We are actively working to reduce the cost of solar systems to make solar energy competitive with conventional electric power," said Wakonda Founder and CEO Les Fritzemeier. "We’re delighted to have the support of this top-tier group of investors to help us accomplish this goal. Their experience and track records give us additional confidence that we will achieve our commercial market objectives."
The company has been developing its technology in conjunction with the Rochester Institute of Technology, where Wakonda Co-founder and CTO Ryne Raffaelle leads the NanoPower Research Lab, and with Cornell University and the NASA Glenn Research Center. In 2007 Wakonda was selected as the Clean Energy Entrepreneur of the Year at the 20th Industry Growth Forum sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). A copy of Wakonda’s presentation from this event is available below (click on image to access).
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