Infinia, the Kennewick, WA-based company developing solar-powered engines that generate electricity, has raised $3.25 million in new debt financing as it pushes through the final year before it starts selling its product on the market.
The company raised $3.25 million in debt and options out of a total financing round worth as much as $10.5 million, according to a regulatory filing today. The document doesn’t say who was behind the latest financing, but Infinia has raised $84 million in capital before this latest round, from a syndicate that includes billionaire Paul Allen and famed venture capitalist Vinod Khosla.
Infinia, as I described in this profile back in August, is using satellite dishes that capture rays of sunlight and channel them to a focal point that contains a Stirling engine. This is a device that converts concentrated heat from the sun, converting it into mechanical work that powers a piston to generate electricity. This device is more efficient at converting solar energy into electricity than other solar technologies, and can be made to last 25 years without any maintenance, or oil, or water. Infinia CEO J.D. Sitton told me back in August that his company had $2 billion worth of orders, and that it hoped to start bringing its first product to the market by the end of September 2010.
While the regulatory document doesn’t say who provided the latest round of debt financing, it lists five members of Infinia’s board. The directors, besides Infinia’s Sitton, include Sharon Clayton of MCC Global in Malibu, CA; Bill Gross of Idealab in Pasadena, CA; John Small of GLG Partners in New York; and Richard Shorten of Silver Mine Capital in New Canaan, CT.
Sitton couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
