provide, not only to the marine and power generation sectors, but also for automotive, commercial truck, and military applications; that is, clean, significantly more fuel-efficient and lower-cost engines compared to the conventional engines that we’ve been relying on for decades.
X: How big is Achates now?
DJ: As we sign contracts, we hire more people. We have a truly world-class team, which now totals 53 people.
X: Achates has raised a total of nearly $90 million since it was founded in 2004, including $35 million in a Series C round that closed a few weeks ago. Do you expect Achates will need additional rounds of venture capital?
DJ: Obviously, as we sign contracts like this one, our need for investor capital is reduced. We will continuously evaluate our capital structure and will consider the opportunity to raise further growth capital to accelerate all aspects of our business.
X: When will Achates become profitable?
DJ: We are on track to meet our financial goals. This contract is evidence of our customers’ confidence and certainly bolsters our confidence in our business plan.
Author: Bruce V. Bigelow
In Memoriam: Our dear friend Bruce V. Bigelow passed away on June 29, 2018. He was the editor of Xconomy San Diego from 2008 to 2018. Read more about his life and work here.
Bruce Bigelow joined Xconomy from the business desk of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He was a member of the team of reporters who were awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for uncovering bribes paid to San Diego Republican Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham in exchange for special legislation earmarks. He also shared a 2006 award for enterprise reporting from the Society of Business Editors and Writers for “In Harm’s Way,” an article about the extraordinary casualty rate among employees working in Iraq for San Diego’s Titan Corp. He has written extensively about the 2002 corporate accounting scandal at software goliath Peregrine Systems. He also was a Gerald Loeb Award finalist and National Headline Award winner for “The Toymaker,” a 14-part chronicle of a San Diego start-up company. He takes special satisfaction, though, that the series was included in the library for nonfiction narrative journalism at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University.
Bigelow graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1977 with a degree in English Literature and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1979. Before joining the Union-Tribune in 1990, he worked for the Associated Press in Los Angeles and The Kansas City Times.
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