Silicon Valley's Polyfuel to go public in……London?

6/13 update: We should clarify that PolyFuel’s work in membranes for auto fuel cells is only a part of what the company does. The company is also working with consumer electronics companies to provide membranes for “portable fuel cells” — which is a much nearer term market.

We’d heard a couple of months ago that PolyFuel, the Mountain View company that is developing fuel-cell technology for cheaper hydrogen-powered cars, would file to go public in London. But our source, an insider, asked us not to publish it. Now word is leaking out, via Fuel Cell Today (Check out Rob’s blog, too, which alerted us). Our source, though, said the reason is simple: European investors are more willing to bet on alternative auto fuels than are U.S. investors. No duh, considering Washington’s foot-dragging.

Here’s the Merc story about the company, which is using nanotechnology to develop a new membrane material for use in the transformation of hydrogen to electricity.

Thursday update: Primack’s musings:

PolyFuel apparently is going to raise Gbp12 million, which would give it an enterprise value of around Gbp40 million, or approximately $73 million. It’s initial VC funding round provided a post-money valuation of just $13.2 million, while a $15.6 million infusion in 2002 was post-valued at $35 million (according to our VentureXpert database). That’s big money for first-round backer Mayfield, and also not to shabby for later players like Intel Capital and Chrysalix Energy. Not amazing, but better than decent for a company in this unchartered line of work.

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