News
Leuven – 6 May 2009, Capricorn Venture Partners announced today its investment in
Belgium based NovoPolymers NV.
Leuven, 06.05.2009 - Capricorn Cleantech Fund invests € 1.5 million in the first round financing of NovoPolymers NV, a Belgian cleantech start-up in the photovoltaic area. Capricorn Venture Partners acts as co-lead alongside GIMV in this total capital round of € 3 million. These financial resources will allow NovoPolymers to start the production and commercialisation of its products.
NovoPolymers is a Flanders based start-up, fully dedicated to develop and produce of transparent polymer based films suitable for the encapsulation of photovoltaic cells into solar modules. To secure the long term functionality and efficiency of solar cells, they must be embedded in one or more transparent polymer layers at the time of the module assembly. Module producers are constantly on the outlook for more durable, cheaper and more efficient encapsulation materials to reduce production cost and increase solar panel efficiency and lifetime.
“We have developed a first product family (NovoVellum™) which appears to be resonating well with potential users. Our novel way of formulating allows us to bring cost effective films to the market, whereas our most performant films allow the module producer to reduce his assembly time by 25%. These advantages are very significant in the current market environment where module makers are currently under pressure to automate in order to reduce cost. Module makers need focused innovative suppliers who development cheaper transparent encapsulant films and who have R&D roadmaps leading to novel innovative encapsulants” according to Johan Declerck, CEO NovoPolymers.
Within two years NovoPolymers expects to employ approximately 15 people. The headquarters, including R&D and the first production site are in Aartselaar, (Antwerp/Belgium). NovoPolymers foresees a strong growth and envisages future production activities close to its customers abroad.
Paul Decraemer, Head Capricorn Cleantech Investment Practice states: “NovoPolymers could not start at a better moment. It is now the right time to create a technology and production platform that will be ready in time to cope with the next wave of growth in this sector, which is expected as of the end of 2010. We have also noticed that NovoPolymers keeps an eye on the total PV market and is also developing solutions for emerging PV technologies such as “Concentrator Photovoltaic” and “Organic Photovoltaic”, next to their offering for traditional crystalline silicon and “thin film” solar technologies. Hence I do believe that the strategy of NovoPolymers is sufficiently flexible to cope with the changing photovoltaic landscape.”
For more information see www.capricorn.be or contact Dr Jos B. Peeters, Managing Partner at jos@capricorn.be – tel. +32 16 28.41.00.
