PV Nano Cell's copper inks for printed electronics attract $3.5m investment

4 September 2013

Israeli company PV Nano Cell Ltd, which develops materials for inkjet printing of conductive patterns in solar cells and printed electronics, has completed a funding round of about $3.5 million.

The round was led by the Infinity IP Bank of China, with participation from the Israel Electric Corporation's Karat program, Slobel of Belgium, and Israeli venture capital fund Terra Venture Partners.

Terra VP was also the seed investor with about $1.5m. To date, PV Nano Cell has raised an approximate total of $5.5 million from investors, including the Chief Scientist at the Israeli Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Energy and Water resources.

PV Nano Cell (PVN) says its technology can achieve significant cost reduction in the manufacturing process of silicon cells as well as in printed electronics through inkjet printing of inks based on nano metric crystal materials. It claims its conductive inks can give savings of 20% on cost per watt for silicon cells as well as substantially reducing hazardous waste effluents in the production processes.

PVN is introducing to the market conductive ink based on stable nano copper particles that have excellent ink stability, printing and conductive properties and low prices, as the inks are based on cheaper copper — $ 8/kg for copper versus 750/kg for silver).

Currently, the company is in the advanced stages of forming a joint venture in China, with a $2.5 million fund invested by the Chinese partner.

PV Nano Cell was founded in early 2010 by Dr Fernando de la Vega, a chemist and expert on nano-metric materials. According to de la Vega, who currently serves as the company's CEO, the technology developed by the company is not limited to printing photovoltaic cells, but is also expected to be utilized in other fields.

"The company is stimulating great interest from potential investors and customers, mainly because the inks that we've developed allow for significantly reduced costs in the printing of conductive patterns. So far, we have focused on the photovoltaic market, we intend to expand by applying our technologies to additional applications, such as printing of various flexible electronic devices," said Dr de la Vega.