Cobalt Technologies, a US-based biofuel maker, has raised $20m in its series D round from a consortium led by the Whittemore Collection, the investment vehicle of Parsons & Whittemore, formerly one of the world’s largest manufacturers of market pulp and builder of some 60 pulp mills in 28 countries.
Also in the round were repeat backers: venture capital firms Pinnacle Ventures, Malaysian Life Sciences Capital Fund, VantagePoint Capital Partners, Life Sciences Partners and @Ventures and investment banks Harris & Harris and Burrill and Company.
In October 2008, Cobalt (then known as Cobalt Biofuels) raised $25m in its C round.
The D round capital will enable Cobalt to build out its new 470,000 gallon per year demonstration plant in Michigan, which will be the world’s first cellulosic biorefinery for the production of the industrial chemical n-butanol. In addition, the funding will enable Cobalt to expand its network of strategic relationships, to begin development of its first commercial facilities and to progress its partnership with the US Navy to develop bio jet fuel.
Rick Wilson, chief executive of Cobalt, said: "In addition to the generous financial support provided by the Whittemore Collection, we now have the world’s most experienced builder of biomass-based businesses on our board supporting us in developing our global enterprise."
George Landegger, chairman of Parsons & Whittemore, said: "We were attracted to Cobalt because the technology delivers a dramatic cost advantage relative to petroleum-based chemicals and the company has a solid plan for scale-up and deployment with a great team. Strategically, we believe the best economic use of biomass besides producing pulp is for use in high-value renewable chemicals such as n-butanol."