Virgin Green and other corporate-backed investors helped Quench, a US-based water cooler company, raise $30m in equity and debt on Thursday.
The environmentally focused affiliate of UK based-conglomerate was joined by new backers of the company, Potomac Energy Fund, a fund of the eponymous asset management company, ORIX Venture Finance, the venture debt arm of the Japanese corporation, The Pohlad Companies, a US-based family holding company. The Advent-Morro Equity Partners, the Puerto Rico-based private equity firm. The company was also backed by Element Partners, a clean technology private equity firm, and Douglas Brown, a senior advisor to Element, as well as other existing investors.
The company purifies tap water rather than providing plastic bottles for water coolers in companies and its product is used by about one third of the Fortune 500, a list of the biggest companies in the US.
The latest fundraising takes the total raised by the company to about $85m, based on an estimate from its prior fundraising filings.
In September last year Quench raised $12.2m, according to one a Securities and Exchange Commission [SEC] filing. It raised $13m in December 2009, $4m in November 2009, as well as $26m in September 2008, according to earlier SEC filings.