AAA Sabella rides $8.5m wave

Sabella rides $8.5m wave

France-based tidal turbine engineering company Sabella has closed an €8m ($8.5m) round featuring Farinia, an iron forging and casting products manufacturer, and IWF Group, an energy and gas processing company.

French public investment bank Bpifrance, which invested via its €150m environmental technology-focused Ecotechnologies fund, and investment firms Emertec and Go Capital also supported the round.

Two investment vehicles managed by French banks also participated – Crédit Agricole du Finistère’s Force 29 fund and BPA Litto Invest, a fund set up by Crédit Maritime Atlantic and partners including Banque Populaire Atlantique.

Founded in 2008 to develop marine technology, Sabella installed France’s first submarine tidal stream turbine, Sabella D03, in that year.

The company is now developing an industrial series of turbines as part of its Sabella D10 project, which received €3.6m in public funding in 2010 from Investissements d’Avenir, a fund managed by France’s environment and energy management agency Ademe.

Other public sources of funding include a European Regional Development Fund grant and loans from several regional and local French bodies, including Brittany, Finistère and the Quimper Agglomeration.

Sabella said the fresh capital would allow the company to accelerate the deployment of its business worldwide.

Jean-Francois Daviau, president of Sabella, said the company plans to increase its headcount next year as it speeds up business development and research and development efforts, SeeNews reported on November 29.

The company has several projects in the pipeline, including one in Asia, Daviau said.

– A version of this article first appeared on our sister site Global Government Venturing.

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