US-based solar technology company Swift Solar has raised $27 million in a Series A financing round that it says will enable to accelerate its efforts to break ground on its maiden factory for perovskite tandem technology.
Founded in 2017 by a group of PV technologists, Swift Solar is a spin-off of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Stanford University and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
Its technology combines metal halide perovskites with silicon or other perovskites to make high-efficiency tandem solar cells. The company says its technology can 'drastically outperform' today's silicon and thin-film technologies at lower cost. With higher performance and cost reductions from perovskites, it has potential to decrease the cost of solar energy by up to 30%, according to Swift.
It targets the company's tandem technology to be integrated with electric vehicles (EV) and satellites, for instance.
"Our advanced perovskite solar cells can outperform anything currently available on the market," said Co-Founder and CEO of Swift Solar, Joel Jean. "Swift Solar will bring advanced solar manufacturing back to the U.S. and strengthen our domestic renewable energy sector."
The latest financing round was led by the corporate venture capital arm of Italy's Eni, Eni Next and mobility and deeptech venture capital firm Fontinalis Partners.
New and existing investors to this funding round are Stanford University, Good Growth Capital, BlueScopeX, HL Ventures, Toba Capital, Sid Sijbrandij, James Fickel, Adam Winkel, Fred Ehrsam, Jonathan Lin, and Climate Capital.
Along with more than $16 million it has raised so far in federal and state grants, Swift Solar says it has now secured $44 million to press ahead with its factory plans.