Date: Jul 05, 2013 Author: Christopher Calnan Source: bizjournals (
click here to go to the source)
Austin-based HelioVolt Corp. has raised $9.5 million of planned $19 million financing.
The solar cell maker collected the capital from a lone investor, according to a Friday filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
HelioVolt, which was founded in 2001, was once one of Austin's highest profile clean technology companies. In 2007, it received a $101 million round of funding coupled with incentives worth more than $600,000 from the city of Austin to build a 125,000-square-foot manufacturing plant.
However, in 2010 the company was required to extend by two years its deadline for creating a certain number of jobs to meet the conditions of a $1 million grant from the Texas Enterprise Fund. The original agreement required creating 158 jobs by December 2010 in return for $1 million in two equal payments.
In 2011, the company reported collecting $85 million from 25 investors just four days after company officials announced a partnership deal with divisions of SK Group — a Korean energy, chemicals and telecommunications giant that would also invest $50 million in the company. The SK Group investment would have increased the total amount of capital HelioVolt has collected since launching to $200 million
