Venture capital funding
Concentrator Optics, the German solar lens company founded by researchers from the University of Marburg, has received funding from Belgium-based venture capitalist Capricorn Venture Partners.
Concentrator Optics designs and produces Fresnel lenses for concentrating photovoltaics (CPV), devices that concentrate sunlight on to photovoltaic cells, allowing it to be converted directly to electricity with high efficiency. The proceeds from the funding round will help the company build a manufacturing plant in Marburg, Germany to produce its lenses up to a capacity of 100 MW.
The Capricorn Cleantech Fund is Capricorn’s third venture capital fund. It invests in European growth companies developing innovative technologies in a number of fields, including renewable energy and energy efficiency, water purification and re-use, climate change, materials recovery and recycling.
The fund, which closed at €100 million in May 2008, is supported by the European Union through the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme.
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