US and Israel-based solar power company BrightSource Energy has topped up its fourth round of funding to $176m with further strategic and venture capital backers, according to a regulatory filing.
The latest, undisclosed investors are a Russian government venture capital fund, which invested $10m, an international venture capital fund and two unnamed private strategic investors, according to news provider Globes following an interview with Israel Kroizer, BrightSource’s chief operating officer. In June, BrightSource made an initial close of its planned $215.5m series D round at $150m.
Engineering company Alstom provided $55m of the series D round to BrightSource as a new investor, its first move into solar power. The other new investor in the series D round was US pension fund California State Teachers’ Retirement System (Calstrs).
They were joined by previous investors in BrightSource, which has raised more than $160m, according to company figures and news provider VentureWire.
These previous investors have included Google.org, BP Alternative Energy, StatoilHydro Venture and Black River, which invested in the $115m series B round in May 2008, and Chevron Technology Ventures, Morgan Stanley, DBL Investors (formerly a subsidiary of JP Morgan) and venture capital firms Draper Fisher Jurvetson and VantagePoint Venture Partners that invested in the early-2007 series A round.
The D round extension comes ahead of a potential flotation, with newswires Dow Jones reporting the solar power company had hired investment banks Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs to prepare for an initial public offering next year.