Boston-Power has closed a $55 million fourth round of financing to fund its expansion—including ratcheting up production of its longer-lasting lithium-ion batteries for laptops—and to boost efforts to break into the promising market to supply batteries for e-bikes as well as hybrid and electric vehicles, the company revealed this morning. The financial jolt comes on the heels of the company’s major deal announced last month to supply its batteries to Hewlett-Packard for the laptop market.
In closing the major financing amid a recession, Westborough, MA-based Boston-Power has shown that investors remain hungry for deals involving environmentally friendly technologies. New investor Foundation Asset Management, of Stockholm, Sweden, led the Series D financing, which included investments from previous backers Oak Investment Partners, Venrock, GGV Capital, and Gabriel Venture Partners. This latest influx of capital brings Boston-Power’s total funding to $125 million.
“We are happy to invest in Boston-Power, a clean tech company with a next-generation technology,” Lars Wedenborn, CEO of Foundation Asset Management, said in a statement. “Together with its founder and CEO, management team and other owners, we aim to develop Boston-Power into a leading battery company.”
Boston-Power CEO Christina Lampe-Onnerud, a Swede who founded the company in 2005, told me yesterday that she was encouraged about closing the firm’s latest round during a downturn. “In tough times, we are announcing a large round of financing to fuel the successes of the last few years,” she said, noting that much of the new financing will support the firm’s
