Ambient Photonics, a California-based low-light solar photovoltaic cells developer, has secured $17.5 million in debt financing for its U.S. solar manufacturing facility. The financing was provided by the Silicon Valley Bank and Trinity Capital, which added to the company’s previously announced equity investment of $31 million, raising the combined equity and debt funding to $48.5 million.
The debt financing lenders now join Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund, Ecosystem Integrity Fund (EIF), Cthulhu Ventures, Tony Fadell’s Future Shape, and I Squared Capital in support of climate-friendly U.S. manufacturing. This financing further supports Ambient’s plan to open the world’s largest low-light solar cell production facility, based in the U.S., to scale low-cost, high-power solar cells to the mass IoT market for the first time.
“We know that securing such significant Series A funding is a testament to Ambient’s potential to create a more sustainable, connected world,” said Ambient CEO Bates Marshall. “By putting debt capital to work from leading lenders like SVB and Trinity Capital, along with the equity capital already raised this round, we will establish the U.S. as a major center of energy harvesting technology manufacturing.”
“SVB is proud to work with startups like Ambient who bring together innovation and talent to solve the world’s most pressing issues. We are excited to support their continued growth and build out of a factory that will create U.S. jobs with global impact,” said Jordan Kanis, managing director of climate technology and sustainability at Silicon Valley Bank.
“Ambient’s rapid growth and progress toward high volume production is as equally impressive as their technology, and we are excited to support their journey in bringing more manufacturing to the U.S.,” said Ben Malcolmson, director of equipment finance at Trinity Capital.
In July, Opdenergy, an independent renewable energy producer, closed a €250 million (~$254 million) debt facility for issuing new senior bonds with EIG, an investor in energy and infrastructure sectors, and Generali Global Infrastructure (CGLI).
According to Mercom’s recently released 1H and Q2 2022 report, solar debt financing activity in 1H 2022 was $5 billion in 30 deals, a 39% lower compared to $8.2 billion in 32 deals in 1H 2021.
