Mascoma Collects $3.4M in Debt Round

Mascoma, the Lebanon, NH-based developer of advanced methods for making ethanol from wood fiber and other non-edible plant matter, has raised $3.4 million toward a $10 million round of convertible debt financing, according to regulatory documents filed April 21. The funding presumably puts the company in stronger position to move forward with construction of an ethanol plant in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

The filing indicates that Mascoma raised the new funds from a group of 10 separate investors, but it doesn’t identify them. The company’s past venture and strategic investors, who have ponied up at least $100 million in three previous rounds of funding, include Atlas Venture, Flagship Ventures, General Catalyst Partners, Khosla Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, General Motors, Marathon Oil Co., Pinnacle Financial Partners, and Vantage Point Venture Partners.

Mascoma won a $15 million grant from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation in June 2008 to build a cellulosic ethanol plant in Kinross in Chippewa County, south of Sault Ste. Marie, MI. The state later pledged another $8.5 million for the plant, which is a joint venture with Marquette, MI-based forestry company J.M. Longyear and is expected to create 50 to 75 jobs and be operational by 2012.

Mascoma representatives did not immediately respond to Xconomy’s request for comment on the funding round. Mascoma appointed a new CEO, chemical industry veteran William Brady, in January.