US-army private equity fund OnPoint Technologies has invested in a $20m round raised by thin film solar printing company Nanosolar on Thursday. Nanosolar has in the past been backed by multiple corporates including EDF and AES Corporation.
The company joined venture capital firms Mohr Davidow Ventures and Aeris Capital in the round.
The company raised $300m in August 2008, taking its total funding at that time to just below $500m, the company said at the time.
This $300m round was backed by Riverstone Holdings, which has ties with US-based alternative asset manager the Carlyle Group, EDF Renewables, backed by France-based energy group EDF, and AES Solar, backed by US-based energy company AES Corporation, and Energy Capital Partners.
Other backers which provided a fraction of the capital included hedge fund Lone Pine Capital, the Skoll Foundation, which backs social entrepreneurs, French-Iranian entrepreneur Pierre Omidyar’s fund and return investors including hedge fund GLG Partners, power plant integrator Beck Energy, and Conergy founding investor Grazia Equity.
The company’s 2006 $75m C funding round was backed by investors including Onpoint and Mohr Davidow as well as venture firms Benchmark Capital, Firelake Capital, Japanese company Mitsui as well as hedge funds SAC Capital and GLG Partners, and Swiss-based reinsurer Swiss Re.
Other investors in the round were Christian Reitberger, the original backer of Q-Cells, Capricorn Management, the investment arm of Jeff Skoll and the investment arms of SAP founders Klaus Tschira (via FirstVentury) and Dietmar Hopp, as well as Beck.