German solar wafer manufacturer NexWafe has raised €30 million financing from current and new investors including Reliance New Energy Limited for its maiden manufacturing fab in Germany's Bitterfeld, and plans to establish a new green manufacturing fab in Saudi Arabia with Aramco Ventures.
Reliance was also the strategic lead investor with €25 million for the Series C financing round under phase I for NexWafe in October 2021. The latter followed up with an additional €7 million to close its Series C investment round (see NexWafe Raises An Additional €7 Million Investment).
Apart from Reliance, other current investors include Aramco Ventures and ATHOS Venture GmbH. This time around, it has also secured funding from Malcolm Turnbull AC and Keshik Capital, led by Alex Turnbull.
"This investment marks the start of NexWafe's plan to raise substantially larger funds in the second half of 2023," said NexWafe CEO Davor Sutija. "The funds will be used to break ground on NexWafe's first commercial facility to speed the renewable energy transition with more efficient, lower cost, green solar wafers for the world's photovoltaic manufacturers."
A spin-off from the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE, NexWafe claims its proprietary gas-to-wafer process to produce ultra-thin, high efficiency, monocrystalline green solar wafers that cuts down energy consumption during manufacturing by 70%.
The company's patented solution also simplifies polysilicon production thereby reducing production costs for n-type monocrystalline wafers used for high-performing modules, which it says results in a 'green' solar energy supply chain.
"NexWafe's process supports urgent US and European efforts to re-shore domestic solar wafer manufacturing and cell production by increasing supply-chain sourcing diversity and resilience," stated the company.