Lebanon, NH-based biofuels company Mascoma Corporation has tapped a new $50 million convertible debt financing for $6.9 million, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on August 18. Thirty investors participated in the financing, including Hemant Taneja from General Catalyst Partners and Jim Matheson from Flagship Ventures.
Mascoma announced in January that it had inked a non-binding agreement with oil firm Valero Energy Corporation to invest up to $50 million in its cellulosic ethanol plant in Kinross Township, MI. Frontier Renewable Resources, the joint venture of Mascoma and its Michigan-based partner J.M. Longyear created to operate the biorefinery, announced in July that it had obtained a permit from the state of Michigan to build the cellulosic ethanol plant with a biomass boiler with the capacity of producing up to 40 million gallons per year.
Frontier’s CEO Steve Hicks says the company expects to break ground on the plant this year and to be fully operational by 2013.
