Infinity IP Bank of China has led a $3.5m series A round in Israel-based PV Nano Cell, alongside co-lead investor Karat, the Israel Electric Corporation’s corporate venturing unit, and including the participation of Belgium-based Slobel and early-stage, Israel-based venture firm Terra VP venture capital fund, .
The target company develops and manufactures nano metric materials that enable non-contact printing of conductive patterns in solar cells and for printed electronics.
PV Nano Cell raised $1.5m in a previous seed round from Terra. The latest round brings the company’s funding to about $5.5m from investors, including the Chief Scientist at the Israeli Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Energy and Waterresources.
Currently, the company is in the advanced stages of forming a joint venture in China, with a $2.5m fund invested by the unnamed Chinese partner.
The company’s USP is that it is developing disruptive technology that achieves significant cost reduction in the manufacturing process of silicon cells as well as in Printed Electronics through inkjet printing of inks based on nano metric crystal materials. According to a release, PVN inkjet conductive inks claim to be the market enabler for inkjet printers’ producers & substantial cost reduction enabler for Printed Electronic applications and solar cells non-contact metallization (generating savings of 20% on cost per watt for silicon cells) as well as substantially reducing hazardous waste effluents in the production processes.
PVN is introducing to the market the first cost efficient conductive ink, based on stable Nano copper particles enabling a wide market penetration of inkjet digital conductive printing through excellent ink stability, printing and conductive properties and low wide commercially viable prices (as the inks are based on significantly cheaper metal – $ 8/kg for copper versus 750/kg for silver).
PV Nano Cell was founded in early 2010 by Dr. Fernando de la Vega, a PhD in applied chemistry and expert on nano-metric materials. According to de la Vega, who currently serves as the company’s chief executive officer, “The company is stimulating great interest from potential investors and customers, mainly because the inks that we’ve developed allow for significantly reduced costs in the printing of conductive patterns. So far, we have focused on the photovoltaic market, we intend to expand by applying our technologies to additional applications, such as printing of various flexible electronic devices”.
Infinity IP Bank was established in March 2010 by Infinity Group and Suzhou Industry Park (SIP). The bank is focused on bringing international advanced mature technology and intellectual property which can be commercialised in China.
The Israel Electric Corporation established an internal venture unit, Karat, which provides funding and support services to develop, advance, and commercialise innovative ideas in energy-related fields.