Fuel cell maker Bloom Energy is raising another $ 150 million at a pre-money valuation of $ 2.7 billion, according to DowJones VentureWire. If closed, Bloom Energy will have raised $ 800 million over its 11-year lifetime and venture investors include New Enterprise Associates, Kleiner Perkins, DAG Ventures and GSV Capital.
The fund raising is being marketed by Advanced Equities. Advanced Equities has also marketed investments in Fisker Automotive, which was also backed by venture investors Kleiner Perkins and New Enterprise Associates. Advanced Equities targets investments from groups of high net worth individuals.
Fisker managed to close hundreds of millions of dollars working with Advanced Equities. Advanced Equities has also been investigated for its fund raising for Fisker.
Bloom is a prime example of a really capital intensive cleantech company. The company could potentially be a game changer for distributed cleaner power generation with its more efficient more well designed fuel cell, but it continues to need lots of capital to scale up manufacturing.
The company broke ground on a new factory on the east coast at the University of Delaware’s campus in Newark, Delaware in April. Bloom also scored a deal to build one of the world’s largest fuel cell farms for Apple in Maiden, North Carolina.
Fuel cells take fuel (natural gas or biogas) and combine it with oxygen and other chemicals to create an electrochemical reaction to produce electricity. Each of Bloom Energy’s next-generation fuel cells produces 200 kW of power right at a building.
Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.
- Flash analysis: lessons from Solyndra’s fall
- Smart Grid Apps: Six Trends That Will Shape Grid Evolution
- A 2011 Green IT Forecast
