Employees of Xtreme Power walk to and from work during shift change at the company’s plant on Goforth Road in Kyle. Xtreme Power recently announced it has snagged $29.5 million in new investment from venture capital funds. (Photo by Sean Kimmons)
by BRAD ROLLINS
Kyle-based Xtreme Power, which engineers and manufactures storage and management systems for wind- and solar-generated electricity grids, announced this week it had secured $29.5 million in additional investment from venture capital firms.
The financing is led by Larchmont, New York-based Bessemer Venture Partners; Irving-based Fluor Corp., the venture capital arm of Dow Chemical Co.; and SAIL Venture Partners. Other participants in this round of investment include POSCO and SkyLake Incuvest.
“We are pleased to collaborate with this strategic group of investors and look forward to growing Xtreme Power and the broader power management market with their support. Their engagement further reinforces the critical role power management plays in achieving a smarter, more efficient energy grid,” said Carlos Coe, Xtreme Power’s chief executive officer.
The funding coincides with Xtreme Power’s announcement that it would install its technology at the Kahuku wind project on Oahu. First Wind broke ground on the 30-megawatt project earlier this month, which will generate enough electricity to power 7,700 homes a year. This week the U.S. Department of Energy finalized a $117 million loan guarantee for the project.
“We have studied the large-scale storage technology landscape for quite a while. Xtreme has a unique and differentiated solution to one of the most intractable problems facing utilities as they try to adopt cleaner energy – how to have it when you need it,” said Umesh Padval of Bessemer Venture Partners. Padval joined Xtreme Power’s board of directors as part of the investment deal as did Walter Schindler, a managing partner at SAIL Venture Partners.
Said Monty Bayer of Dow Chemical, “This investment is another example of Dow’s strategic commitment to fostering and implementing innovative energy solutions – from advanced batteries for next-generation hybrid cars, to new materials that make homes more efficient, to new solutions for capturing greenhouse gases and addressing global climate change.”
Founded in 2004, Xtreme Power employs about 160 people at its Kyle headquarters on Goforth Road and a smaller outpost in Oklahoma.
In August last year, the company anounced plans to build a plant at a former Ford Motor Co. facility in Wixom, Mich. with the aid of a $200 million investment from the state of Michigan. As many as 2,500 workers might be employed there by 2014, Michigan officials said at the time, although Coe told the Austin American Statesman that he did not yet know if that target would be attainable.
The company received a $2 million grant from the Texas Emerging Technology fund in 2007.
