Sopogy, a US-based solar thermal technology company, has raised an undisclosed amount in its series E round from multiple corporate venturing units.
Japan-based financial services conglomerate Mitsui led the E round, which also included other new investors. The new investors were US power utility Southern California Gas Company, industrial group 3M and undisclosed strategic investors. Existing investors, venture capital firms Kolohala Ventures and Enerdigm Ventures, also joined the round.
Founded in 2002 at the Honolulu, Hawaii, clean technology incubator known as Energy Laboratories, Sopogy had previously raised a reported $20m of venture capital, excluding grants.
Wataru Ebata, general manager of the principal investment division at Mitsui, said: “Sopogy is bringing us closer to a future where steam and industrial heat is generated by the sun, replacing fossil fuels.”
Separately, Mitsui’s Global Investment unit has led the $20m series F round for US-based drugs group Edison Pharmaceuticals.
Edison’s undisclosed E round closed in September 2011.