AAA Bloom balloons funding by $130m

Bloom balloons funding by $130m

Switzerland-based bank Credit Suisse has helped fuel cell maker Bloom Energy raise $130m in new venture capital funding.

An unidentified new investor provided the first $100m, while Credit Suisse provided the remaining $30m.

Existing investors did not participate in the round, which was structured as an extension to the company’s series G round that originally closed on $150m in 2011 at a $2.7bn valuation.

Bloom now has raised more than $1.1bn in funding. Past investors include investment bank Goldman Sachs and a string of VCs including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, New Enterprise Associates, Advanced Equities and DAG Ventures.

Bloom posted $42m of pro forma revenue and -$61m of pro forma operating income for the first three months of the year, according to documents obtained by news provider Fortune. Those figures are lower than Bloom results for both the third and fourth quarters last year. Bloom also reports -$1.03bn in retained earnings, compared to a -$873m mark through Q3 2012. 

On the upside, Bloom also tells investors that remains “on track” to become profitable in the second half of 2013, and expects to return to positive gross margin in Q2. It also has signed a term sheet for a Japanese joint venture with internet conglomerate Softbank.

Earlier this year Bloom was fined by the US Department of Labor for paying a group of Mexican nationals – who were working at the company’s Silicon Valley headquarters via work visas – less than minimum wage.

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