Heliatek raises €80M
Heliatek, a world leader in organic photovoltaic and a manufacturer of solar films based in Dresden, Germany, has put together a €80M round to finance the expansion of its HeliaFilm manufacturing capacity by one million square-metres per year. This round comprises €42M in equity, €20M in debt, and about €18M in subsidies.
“We are very excited to have successfully completed this financing round. This allows us to strengthen our world leadership in organic solar film and to accelerate our expansion. We will continue to lead the way in enabling distributed energy generation on industrial and commercial buildings” stated Thibaud Le Séguillon, Heliatek CEO. “We will follow our strategy by expanding the BIOPV – Building Integrated Organic Photovoltaic - market through supplying large quantities of our HeliaFilms to our customers in the building and construction material field” he added.
The Series D financing round is led by innogy SE, one of the leading European energy companies. New investors also include ENGIE, BNP Paribas and CEE Group, an investment company of Lampe Equity Management specialized in renewable energy. The existing investors, AQTON, BASF, eCAPITAL, High-Tech Gründerfonds, Innogy Venture Capital, TUDAG and Wellington Partners, participated in this round. Peter Terium, CEO of innogy SE, underlines: “I am really pleased that Heliatek is a true success story. We have continually invested in Heliatek since 2009. Thanks to our early engagement, we have the opportunity to participate in creating the market for one of the most exciting innovations in the area of renewable energies.”
The European Investment Bank, under the “InnovFin – EU Finance for Innovators” program, granted a €20M loan to Heliatek. This programme is a joint initiative launched by the European Investment Bank in cooperation with the European Commission under Horizon 2020. “The EIB is committed to support innovation in Europe. Loans to innovative midcaps like Heliatek are key to drive Europe’s knowledge economy”, emphasised EIB Vice President Ambroise Fayolle, who is responsible for EIB’s business in Germany.
Heliatek plans to install its new manufacturing roll-to-roll facility on its site in Dresden over the next 18 months. It will offer a capacity of one million m² p.a. of solar films when fully ramped up. The company will continue in parallel its worldwide roll out of its HeliaFilm products to the building material and the automotive industry. These expansions should create more than 50 new high-tech jobs in Saxony.