Gimv invests in Belgian NovoPolymers, a new supplier to the photovoltaic industry

Gimv invests EUR 1.5 million in the first financing round of the Belgian cleantech company NovoPolymers (www.novopolymers.com). Gimv and Capricorn both act as co-lead investors in a total financing round of EUR 3 million. These new financial means should allow NovoPolymers to start producing and commercialising its products.

Founded in 2008, NovoPolymers focuses on developing and producing innovative polymer films that are used for laminating breakable solar cells. This laminate protects the fragile solar cells against shocks, humidity and degradation by UV radiation. The potential clients of NovoPolymers are producers of solar panels who want to incorporate solar cells into durable applications. Currently, NovoPolymers has two marketable products that are being tested by several leading European producers of photovoltaic panels.

This investment in NovoPolymers stresses Gimv’s ambition in the cleantech sector. Amongst Gimv’s earlier investments clearly related to cleantech are GreanPeak, Bioro, Electrawinds, Ceres and Oree. The cleantech portfolio will be extended and managed by four investment professionals. They can count on the active support of Marc Van Sande, Chief Technology Officer at Umicore, who recently joined the Advisory Board of the Technology division. Bart Diels, who is responsible for gimv’s cleantech activities, will represent Gimv on the board of NovoPolymers.

This investment shows that in spite of the difficult economic circumstances Gimv is still willing to invest in early stage technology companies.

No further financial details on this transaction will be disclosed.