Sunpreme revealed that in its latest financing round the company had secured over US$50 million, which will go towards the construction of a new solar cell manufacturing facility in Jiaxing, China. The financing round was led by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a private entity of the World Bank Group. Capricorn Investment and Environment Fund III, managed by Tsing Capital also contributed to the funding round.
Upon completion of its new solar cell facility, Sunpreme intends to expand the production of its SmartSilicon cells. “Over the past 18 months, Sunpreme has demonstrated for the first time a commercially viable metallurgical Silicon solar cell technology. Our first three US patents for the innovative device structure have been granted and we are now moving to scale production of the SmartSilicon cells in the new Jiaxing facility, near Shanghai, with world-class environmental and social management systems fully supported by the local Government,” said Ashok Sinha, Sunpreme Chairman and CEO and former senior VP responsible for the applied materials silicon products business. “With continued support from our new and existing investors, we are in a position to achieve a global footprint beyond the US, Europe and China,” he added.