Startup raises $1.8m for miniature solar cell production
The additional capital will support the development, testing, and sales of the company’s DragonSCALES (SemiConductor Active Layer Embedded Solar) miniature solar cell technology. This uses small silicon cells integrated on a flexible substrate in a highly interconnected architecture to enable new applications. Its technology, says the company, offers unprecedented improvements in system cost, weight, flexibility, resilience, and ease of installation and system integration.
“We are experiencing tremendous interest in our DragonSCALES technology, not only for the rapidly growing aerospace market, but also for the terrestrial and IoT (Internet of Things) markets,” said Kevin Hell, president and CEO of mPower Technology. “This supplemental capital investment will provide runway for mPower to ready its innovative technology for large-scale production and rapidly secure large commercial contracts in the space market.”
The extension funding round included investments from Cottonwood Technology Fund, NMA Ventures, and various angel investors, bringing the company’s total Series A round to $4.35 million.
David Blivin, Founder and Managing Partner, Cottonwood Technology Funds, one of the investors says, “Cottonwood looks for ‘off-the-curve’ innovations in hard science that we believe can introduce disruptive impacts to applicable markets. mPower’s technology is uniquely positioned to transform the space power market through its significant cost and performance advantages, and this certainly fits with our focus.”
The company says it was recently awarded an SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) contract from the US Army to develop and test solar modules for soldier portable and remote power applications. The company indicates it has also made notable progress in the space solar power market with several large opportunities related to low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellations.
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