Chip equipment maker Applied Materials might have ditched its thin-film solar plans last month, but its VC arm is still funding solar innovations. This morning, Applied Ventures said it has backed BT Imaging, a startup that sells gear to inspect and ensure quality-control for solar cells and wafers.
The 3-year-old Australian company sells various automated and manual inspection gear for solar material producers that it says can help solar manufacturers reduce costs and help reach grid parity. The technology is a laser-based photoluminescence imaging technology that BT Imaging founders, Thorsten Trupke and Rob Bardos, invented at the University of New South Wales in New South Wales, Australia.
Applied Ventures joined BT Imaging’s Series A round, which totaled $3.8 million and included existing investors Allen & Buckeridge and Uniseed. Applied Ventures took an equity stake in BT Imaging with the round.
Corporate investors were instrumental in pushing up venture investments in the last quarter for greentech, according to the Cleantech Group. Total investments during the last quarter shot up 43 percent to reach $2.02 billion, spread among 140 recipients, from a year ago. Overall, the $4.04 billion from the first half of this year was up 65 percent from the first half of 2009, and slightly beat the record number in the first half of 2008. Active corporate greentech investors include Samsung, GE Capital, General Motors Ventures, Intel Capital, Shell, Alstom (French power company), Cargill Ventures and Applied Ventures.
While Applied Materials decided to cut its thin-film solar “SunFab line” — which is expected to cost up to 500 jobs — earlier this year, the semiconductor gear company will still be selling equipment to make silicon cells and wafers. BT Imaging’s inspection gear is a natural bolt on to Applied’s cell and wafer makers.
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