Three New England firms rounded out the first week of the New Year with new financing rounds.
—Konarka Technologies of Lowell, MA, which is famous for its flexible “Power Plastic” photovoltaic material, raised $23.8 million in Series G funding through an offering combining equity and warrants. All of the money came from a single source, according to a regulatory filing published yesterday, but Konarka hasn’t yet identified the investor. The company’s existing investors include 3i, Chevron, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Good Energies, Mackenize Investments, the Massachusetts Green Energy Fund, the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, New Enterprise Associates, Partech International, and Vanguard Ventures.
—Dynadec of Providence, RI, has raised $2.1 million toward an intended $2.4 million round of financing, according to a regulatory filing yesterday. As I explained in a profile last summer, Dynadec, formally known as Dynamic Decisions Technology, is commercializing software developed by Brown University computer scientist Pascal Van Hentenryck that can help companies solve complex optimization problems, such as the most efficient way for a utility to deploy power-line repair personnel after an ice storm. The four investors contributing to the round weren’t named in the filing, but Dynadec’s board includes representatives of Liberty Capital Partners, Velocity Equity Partners, and the Slater Technology Fund.
—In yet another regulatory disclosure filed yesterday, Groton, MA-based Harvest Automation said it has collected $3 million out of an intended $5.75 million funding round. Harvest told Mass High Tech that the investment came from Amsterdam-based Life Sciences Partners and Indiana-based Midpoint Food & AG Fund, as well as Dina Routhier, a principal at the Massachusetts Technology Development Corporation. The startup, which was founded by iRobot alumni and was originally known as Q Robotics, is building agile mobile robots for large-scale agricultural operations. As Greg explained in a July 2008 profile, the robots are designed to adjust the spacing between potted plants as the plants grow.
