UK-based fuel cell company Intelligent Energy has raised $35m at a $500m valuation.
The latest deal takes the company to £120m ($191.4m) raised in its history. Backers of the latest round included fund managers F&C, which led the round, Artemis and Altima. Intelligent Energy has previously said it would consider a flotation when market conditions are right.
The company has been led since 2006 by chief executive Henri Winand, who was formerly at Rolls Royce’s corporate venturing unit.
The round follows the company signing a joint venture with Japan’s Suzuki Motor Corporation this month to develop and manufacture air-cooled fuel cell technologies for various industry sectors. Other prior backers of Intelligent Energy include UK-based utility Scottish and Southern Energy, which has a 50:50 joint venture using the fuel cells.
Winand: "Our main backers are financial and with corporate venturing units at the subsidiaries. The rationale is we operate in three high-opportunity segments and on a non-exclusive basis and if strategics materially invested in the top company, ie more than 5% to 10%, then competitors might think they had an ability to look inside."
Winand added: "Intelligent Energy’s growth continues to gather momentum as we see firm traction for our clean and efficient power technology in each of our key market sectors: motive, consumer electronic and stationary power. Hot on the heels of our landmark joint venture announcement with Suzuki, this latest round of funding is firmly aimed at reflecting this success within our consumer electronics and stationary power divisions. Partners and customers are ready to take advantage of our scalable power cores in these markets, worth around $410bn and $150bn respectively, so it is an incredibly exciting time for us."
The company’s roots go back to a collaboration between Loughborough University’s Department of Chemistry and the Department of Aeronautical and Automotive Engineering, working on the development of "proton exchange membrane" fuel cell technology.
The company’s technology was subsequently spun off from Loughborough University in 1995 as the company Advanced Power Sources, before this company was acquired by Intelligent Energy, which was set up in 2001.
Earlierin the month, Rian Urding moved from being Intellient Energy’s chief financial officer to become chief executive of its subsidiary company, IE Low Emission Vans . This joint venture company, of which Intelligent Energy is a majority shareholder, through its US based subsidiary company, Emerald Automotive, will design and manufacture a light weight, low emission delivery vehicle, planned for global distribution beginning in 2014.