LanzaTech, an Auckland, New Zealand-based clean technology company, has raised US$18m in Series B financing.The round was led by China focused venture capital firm Qiming Ventures, with participation from Softbank China Venture Capital and two existing investors from the Series A round closed in 2007, Khosla Ventures and New Zealand-based K1W1.
The company uses proprietary bacteria to convert industrial waste gases into fuels and chemicals. According to Dr Sean Simpson, co-founder of LanzaTech, the funding will enable the company to further accelerate commercialization of its process.
“We plan to have a pre-commercial plant operational in 2011 with plans to quickly scale to a commercial facility producing over 200 million liters of ethanol per year”, Dr Simpson said.
“The funding will also see expansion of the company’s focus to include the use of CO2 as a feedstock gas”. he added.
The financing follows LanzaTech’s signing with Baosteel, China’s largest steel and iron conglomerate, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) to commercialize its technologies for producing ethanol from steel mill off gases.
FinSMEs
12/07/2010