Nexterra raises $15millions in Equity Funding

The already known tendency of funding biotechnology business ideas proves to continue to be powerful as the Canadian system provider of biomass, Nexterra, has just raised $15millions in equity funds from the Tandem Expansion Fund and the ARC Financial, venture capital firms that sustain expanding businesses.

The business idea on which the Nexterra project is based refers to ways of saving electric energy and minimizing the costs for heat. The project addresses especially to large consumers such as hospitals, government buildings, universities and schools, and industrial facilities. The biomass gasification system developed by the company based in Vancouver allows these heavy consumers generate their own heat and power on-site. These systems are said to be a lot more efficient in the urban environment due to their high degree of flexibility and low level of emissions.

As the Nexterra Company is not in its start-up phase, there are already institutions around the world using this project whose growth has just been funded. The US Department of Energy and the University of Montana are just a few institutions we can name. As a matter of fact, they have also just signed a deal with the University of British Columbia for a demonstration system, in the amount of $27 millions.

‘We believe that the market for small-scale biomass heat and power systems is poised to grow rapidly in the next few years to meet rising demand for on-site renewable, energy security and greenhouse gas reduction,’ said Sandy Scott of Tandem Expansion.

Moreover, he added that their decision of funding Nexterra is due to the experience and the high-quality products of the company. Sandy Scott added the following: ‘When we looked at the biomass energy market, Nexterra clearly stood out due to its innovative and commercially proven technology, strong market position and seasoned management team.’ As you can see, the decision of funding this company is not based only on the innovation entailed by the business idea, but also on the position on the market, on the quality of the management team and on the potential return rate of the investment.

The decision of choosing this field of activity for the funded company comes as a result of the main specialization of the equity investors who have directed these funds. ARC Financial is an equity investor managing funds of more than $2.7 billion. Their interest is entirely focused on the energetic sector, covering all the area from oil sands to different ways of producing renewable energy. The Tandem Expansion is an equity investor specialised in funding expanding companies that takes minority stakes in the Canadian business field.