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It may not be as much as the colossal $300 million financing that Nanosolar finally disclosed yesterday — the biggest ever for a solar company — but another thin-film manufacturer, AVA Solar, has broken into the nine-figure funding range today, with a challenge to industry giant First Solar’s dominance.

AVA stands out a bit from its peers, for several reasons. For one, it’s based in Fort Collins, Colorado, well away from the sunny or technology-laden areas its competitors operate in. The outfit has thus gotten relatively little attention. The second oddity is the technology that AVA uses, which builds thin-film cells using cadmium telluride (CdTe), a kind of semiconductor.

Most of the biggest bets in thin-film solar, a form of solar panel that is less efficient than traditional silicon-based cells but much cheaper to make, are based on copper-indium-gallium-selenide, or CIGS technology. Ascent Solar, Heliovolt, Miasole, Nanosolar, and a bunch of other companies all use CIGS. There’s an ongoing debate as to whether CIGS, CdTe or a third material, thin-film silicon, is best.

However, CdTe, despite a reputation for being difficult to work with, holds a singular distinction: It’s what First Solar, the industry’s first and only success, First Solar, uses. It has been reported that First Solar has no direct competitors in CdTe technology. AVA obviously proves that claim wrong. A handful of others working with CdTe include Sunovia (OTCBB: SUNV), Calyxo, which is owned by the German giant Q-Cells, and PrimeStar Solar, which recently sold a majority stake to General Electric Energy. Primestar, like AVA, is based in Colorado.

AVA is currently building a plant in Fort Collins, CO, where it promises to employ 500 at a production line that will make 250 megawatts worth of cells a year by 2010. The company appears to use deposition on glass to make its cells, which is also what First Solar uses, although a company spokesman tells me that AVA’s technique is “completely different”.

A number of well-known venture firms came on for the $104 million funding. DCM led, while new investors Technology Partners, GLG Partners and Bohemian Companies participated, and previous investor Invus came back in. AVA raised its seed less than two years ago and took a second funding in June of 2007, but didn’t disclose amounts for either of those fundings.

With the market for hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) finally starting to heat up in earnest, several companies are making big bets on advanced rechargeable battery technologies. One of these is PowerGenix, a San Diego, Calif.-based startup that makes nickel-zinc (NiZn) batteries.

Another is ZPower, a startup that hopes to oust lithium ion as the dominant technology by developing advanced silver-zinc (AgZn) batteries. While they offer greater power density, AgZn batteries haven’t been used much because they allow for far fewer recharges than lithium ion batteries. ZPower has now succeeded in increasing the number of times its batteries can be recharged to be competitive with the latter.

NiZn batteries are smaller, lighter and more powerful than competitor technologies, such as nickel-cadmium (NiCd) and nickel-metal hydride (NiMH). Because they contain no toxic materials, they are environmentally safe and easy to recycle. PowerGenix’s CEO, Dan Squiller, said his company’s batteries are 50 percent cheaper than lithium-ion and 20 percent cheaper than NiMH. Not only that, they also offer a major power boost over the latter: 30 percent more — which, for HEVs, could translate to a 30 percent mileage increase.

Squiller believes his firm’s consumer AA batteries could grab a large share of the roughly $400 million rechargeable battery market. Unlike its rivals, whose batteries’ output typically peaks at 1.2 V, PowerGenix’s rechargeable batteries boast a 1.65 V output — even higher than standard throwaway batteries’ 1.5 V output. The company plans on inking several distribution agreements within the next 2 - 4 weeks.

Though he was coy on the details, Squiller told me PowerGenix had already secured over $40 million in supply agreements with several major power tool companies in Asia and the U.S. When I asked him what his game plan was to take on the industry’s heavy-hitters — companies like Sanyo, Panasonic and Johnson Control — he readily admitted that he didn’t foresee PowerGenix competing on the same plane anytime in the near future.

PowerGenix’s business strategy is two-fold: It plans on licensing its D-cell battery pack technology to OEM partners for the HEV market and, for all other device applications, will manufacture the batteries itself. One benefit of this strategy is that it avoids the need for PowerGenix to invest a lot of money in its own costly manufacturing processes: Because NiZn batteries are designed to use exising NiCd and NiMH processes, the firm will rely on its partners to build the batteries and incorporate them into a range of devices.

Squiller gave a blunt assessment of the battery industry’s future landscape, predicting prices for lithium ion batteries would rise and deeming most emerging technologies, including nanowires and supercapacitors, still too early for commercial-scale production. Though he commended A123 Systems‘ decision to switch to a nanophosphate lithium ion technology for safety reasons, he said the move had come at a performance cost for its batteries.

He predicted his company would reach full-scale production by the second half of 2009. PowerGenix plans on raising a fourth round of funding this summer and is seeking another $15-20 million to help it scale up its production capacity. It will start the round in early June and expects to wrap it up by the end of September. Squiller said he was looking for one lead investor with experience in the cleantech sector. PowerGenix has raised $31 million so far and has received support from Angeleno Group, Advent International, Technology Partners, Granite Ventures, OnPoint Technologies and Braemar Energy Ventures in the past.

His ultimate ambition is to replace all NiMH batteries with NiZn batteries — a decision he says makes sense from both a performance and financial perspective. Not too shabby for a technology that last saw its heyday in Thomas Edison’s time.

TODAY’S HEADLINES:

• BrainCells raises $30M for neuroregeneration drugs (release)
• EKR Therapeutics takes in $50M plus $95M in debt for pain, heart drugs (release)
• Wright Medical acquires Berkeley’s Inbone Tech for $24M (release)
• Argolyn Bioscience names Nixon Ellis as CEO (release)

BrainCells raises $30M for neuroregeneration drugs – San Diego’s BrainCells, a startup focused on drugs intended to stimulate the growth of new neurons, raised $30 million in a second funding round. Investors included MedImmune Ventures, Bay City Capital, Oxford Bioscience Partners, Technology Partners, Pappas Ventures and Neuro Ventures.

BrainCells set out several years ago to discover drugs that stimulate neuron growth, following pioneering discoveries at the Salk Institute that revealed mechanisms by which the brain itself regrows its primary cells under certain circumstances. The startup, which raised $17.7 million in a 2004 first round, has been screening experimental compounds against neural stem cells to identify ones that had the previously overlooked property of promoting the growth of new brain cells.

The company’s lead drug candidate, BCI-540, which it licensed from Mitsubishi Pharma, will soon be mid-stage, phase II trials as a potential treatment for depression and anxiety disorder. (Mitsubishi had previously tested as a possible Alzheimer’s therapy, so it’s already been taken by 700 patients and is considered safe.) A follow-up compound, also licensed from a Japanese company — Taisho Pharmaceutical — remains in animal testing at the moment.

EKR Therapeutics takes in $50M plus $95M in debt for pain, heart drugs – Cedar Knolls, N.J., specialty pharma EKR Therapeutics raised $50 million in a fourth funding round that also included $95 million in debt. Investors in the equity round included MPM Capital, LLR Partners, Quaker BioVentures, the Garden State Life Sciences Venture Fund, NewSpring Capital and ESP Equity Partners. GE Healthcare Financial Services provided the debt financing.

EKR, like most specialty pharmas, acquires or licenses cast-off drugs from other companies, usually in hopes of finding new uses for them. Although the release doesn’t say so specifically, this funding will likely cover the company’s recent purchase of several drugs from the rapidly disintegrating PDL BioPharma; last month, EKR said it had raised an undisclosed amount of funding for that deal, in which it agreed to pay $85 million up front and another $85 million in potential milestone payments.

The company also has the distinction of using that deal to “re-acquire” several drugs that an earlier incarnation known as ESP Pharmaceuticals handed to PDL in a 2005 acquisition, an interesting turn of events we covered here.

APX, a Silicon Valley company that certifies carbon and emissions offset certificates, and which is well-placed to support carbon-trading markets when they emerge, has gotten backing from Goldman Sachs in a $14 million investment, VentureBeat has learned.

Carbon trading is a growing business that could someday come to resemble the world’s largest financial markets.

Today’s emissions markets are generally small and fragmented. In regional U.S. energy markets, utilities are already required to buy electricity from alternative energy sources like geothermal, solar or wind. To prove their use of alternative energy, they’re required to file a certificate tracking their acquisition of the energy units. So this is the beginning of a “transfer” regime that could grow into more.

Meantime, carbon offsetting markets that corporations buy credits from are currently voluntary, but in anticipation of future government regulation, they often require similar certifying schemes. However, the source of offsets can vary widely, from alternative energy generation to tree planting projects.

APX acts as part of the intermediary chain between buyer and seller, doing the work of tracking serial numbers on these certificates and the accounts they go into. It’s not glamorous, but having an efficient, scalable back-end will be one of the requirements for building a multi-billion dollar market, as emissions trading may well become.

Such details aren’t always automatically addressed as part of creating a new system. In fact, when California was looking at creating a regional registry in 2006, APX was the only qualified bidder, according to Dr. Reiner Musier, the company’s chief marketing officer.

As today’s small, scattered emissions trading markets grow, they may come to resemble the complex business and regulatory ecosystems of the futures and equities markets, which include various behind-the-scenes businesses similar to APX. Another indicator that some very serious businesses are becoming involved is one of the new investors in the company’s latest funding: Goldman Sachs, a heavyweight in the New York financial markets.

The funding we’re reporting was previously announced by APX as an undisclosed round. It appears to have been about $20 million, although the company may have only raised about $14 million to date (it declined to comment on the amount). Besides Goldman Sachs, previous investors Bechtel Enterprises Holdings, Kinetic Ventures, ONSET Ventures, Technology Partners and Woodside Fund also took part.

APX, which is based in Santa Clara, Calif., currently handles tracking for five regional markets in the United States, as well as the Gold Standard, an international carbon trading standard. It makes a small set fee off each certificate that’s traded, and thus its success is relative to the volume of the markets. In the interest of helping these markets develop, the firm also advises newly forming markets on how to set themselves up.

With a fresh $32 million funding going to nanotechnoloy firm NanoGram, mainly for development of next-generation solar cells, it’s a good time to point out some up-and-coming technologies that work on very small scales to make photovoltaic cells more efficient.

NanoGram has already had several commercial successes, including inventions in both electronics and medicine. However, the company has of late turned its sights on boosting the efficiency of solar cells.

The company is working on ultra-thin crystalline silicon which it says will reduce the cost of silicon-based solar cells to below $1 per watt hour, a price point that is generally considered a breakthrough.

Its latest funding is notable because Nanogram had so far only taken $27 million in funding since its inception in 1996, growing to over $20 million in annual revenue. It plans to use the additional $32 million (investor details at bottom) in part toward a pilot plant for solar modules.

SunFlake A/S, a European company, makes the same claim of being able to manufacture a low-cost cell with about 30 percent efficiency, roughly double the efficiency of the average solar cell available today.

Headed by noted scientist Martin Aagesen, the company plans to make use of a type of nanowire discovered by Aagesen that he calls “nanoflakes.” Blessed with a perfect crystalline structure, nanoflakes are capable of absorbing nearly all light directed at them, according to the company.

By growing its nanowires into a low-grade silicon substrate, SunFlake will reduce the need for large amounts of high-quality polysilicon when making cells. However, it has yet to announce plans to commercially manufacture cells.

Another methods on the horizon is the use of metal oxide nanoparticals in cells. Dr. Jin Zhang of the University of California, Santa Cruz, plans to use a combination of nanoparticles and quantum dots (using nano-crystals, as SunFlake does) to make a highly efficient solar cell.

(Nanotechnology, by the way, refers the field of science that works at the atomic and molecular scale, roughly between 1 to 100 nanometers. Elements and compounds take on different characteristics when they are so tiny, and studying them is leading to new users and inventions, as we’re seeing here.)

A team led by Zhang and including other researchers from China and Mexico recently tested a prototype cell using a nanocomposite material of their own devising. The cell performed even better than the researchers expected.

“We’re manipulating the energy levels of the nanocomposite material so the electrons can work more efficiently for electricity generation,” Zhang told ScienceDaily. His research is currently supported by various governmental groups from the three countries involved.

One note when considering these up-and-coming technologies: It will probably be about five years before they hit the market in force. However, as new technologies become more common, existing cost balances between different solar technologies, like polysilicon and CIGS cells, will likely be upset.

Finally, returning to NanoGram’s funding, the company brought on new investors Global Cleantech Capital, Masdar Clean Tech Fund, Mitsui Ventures, Nagase & Company, Nanostart AG, TEL Venture Capital, and Yasuda Enterprise Development for the round. Existing investors ATA Ventures, Bay Partners, Harris & Harris, Institutional Venture Partners, Nth Power, Rockport Capital Partners, SBV Venture Partners, and Technology Partners also participated.

TODAY’S HEADLINES:

• Topical Botox maker Revance gets $43M, option to be acquired by Medicis (release)
• Reva Medical draws $42M for resorbable stents (release)
• AccentCare raises $8M for senior home-care services (VentureWire, sub req’d)
• Light Dimensions aims for $6M for light-based skin treatment (VW)
• Carigent pulls in $2M for nanoparticle drugs (release)
• Celtic Pharma shoots for $1.5B in two drug-investment funds (VW)

Topical Botox developer Revance gets $43M, option to be acquired by Medicis — Mountain View, Calif.-based Revance Therapeutics, a developer of a Botox-like topical cream for wrinkle treatment and excessive sweating, raised $43.2 million in a third funding round. Medicis, a dermatology-products company in Scottsdale, Ariz., invested $20 million in the round and promised up to $5 million more in exchange for an option to acquire Revance or to exclusively license its botulinum-toxin drug.

The deal values Revance at approximately $200 million. Other investors in the round include Essex Woodlands Healthcare Ventures, Vivo Ventures, Technology Partners, Shepherd Ventures, and Palo Alto Investors. The Medicis options will extend through mid-stage human tests of the company’s botulinum-toxin drug.

Reva Medical draws $42M for resorbable stents — Reva Medical, a San Diego device maker focused on artery-opening stents that can be broken down and reabsorbed by the body, raised $42 million in a private financing. Cerberus Capital Management and Brookside Capital led the round, joined by Pequot Capital Management, Medtronic, Domain Partners and Group Outcome LLC.

Stents are used to prop open clogged arteries following a heart attack or other cardiovascular problems. The expandable mesh tubes, however, can also lead to additional problems down the line, such as the formation of scar tissue that can reblock vessels and even the creation of dangerous blood clots. Several companies are now pursuing stents that last just long enough for a previously clogged vessel to heal; we covered a Paris-based startup in this field, Arterial Remodeling Technologies, here.

Carigent pulls in $2M for nanoparticle drugs — New Haven, Conn.-based Carigent Therapeutics, a biotech developing new drugs based on nanoparticles that take aim at particular biological targets, raised $2 million in a first funding round. Saint Simeon Marketing and Investments provided the funding.

Carigent’s approach is to envelop drugs in a biodegradeable nanoparticle, which then will be coated with antibodies or other molecules designed to “anchor” the particle on or wthin certain cells or tissues. We’ve covered the company previously here.

Featured companies: Reliant Technologies, Leptos Biomedical, Calidora Skin Clinic

Reliant Tech seeks $95M IPO for dermatology lasers — Mountain View, Calif.-based Reliant Technologies, a developer of medical lasers for “skin rejuvenation” treatment, filed to raise as much as $95 million in an initial offering. The company currently markets two laser systems for skin treatment under the Fraxel brand name, and intends to launch a third one next year.

Oddly enough, Reliant Tech’s IPO filing comes just days after Reliant Pharmaceuticals filed for a $400 million initial offering (see our coverage in this daily briefing). That should certainly keep investors on their toes. Journalists, too — I almost didn’t cover this IPO because I thought I’d already written about it.

Although it has products on the market, Reliant Tech is not only still losing money, its losses are apparently continuing to mount. Total revenues have grown substantially, to $57.4 million in 2006 from $4.5 million in 2004, but its net losses have also kept pace, largely as a result of mounting sales and marketing expenses. Net losses in 2006 were $20.9 million, up from $13.3 million in 2004; for the first half of 2007, the company posted a loss of $10.9 million on $35.3 million in revenue.

Reliant Tech raised $37 million in its two most recent fundings, most recently drawing in $15 million in a fifth round, according to VentureWire (subscription required).

Neuromodulator Leptos raises $20M for obesity implant — Leptos Biomedical, a Brooklyn Center, Minn., developer of obesity-control implants, raised $20 million in a third funding round, VentureWire reports. Investors included Latterell Venture Partners, Spray Venture Partners, Thomas McNerney & Partners and Technology Partners.

Leptos is developing what it calls an “implantable pulse generator” designed to send electric signals into the sympathetic nervous system in order to suppress appetite and induce the burning of fat. The company has apparently already conducted a pilot trial of the device, which it says the new funding will allow it to extend. Leptos hasn’t disclosed additional details about its technology; on its Web site, the page devoted to approach is a two-paragraph stub filled with boilerplate.

I’ve written earlier about EnteroMedics, another company hoping to treat obesity using an implant that interferes with signals transmitted along the vagus nerve — you can read our previous coverage here. In general, the whole field of “neuromodulation” is heating up quite a bit these days, with companies hoping to use timed electrical pulses to the nervous system for treating everything from epilepsy to sleep apnea to hypertension — although it’s worth bearing in mind that almost all of these approaches are so far unproven. See our previous coverage of other companies in this space here, here, here, here, and here.

Founded in 2003, Leptos is the brainchild of serial physician-entrepreneur John Dobak, who previously founded hypothermia-inducer InnerCool Therapies and CryoGen, which developed a cryothermic technique for stanching uterine bleeding. Both companies have since been acquired — InnerCool for $6 million (after raising $49 million) and CryoGen for something between $40 million and $150 million (after raising roughly $60 million).

Skin-clinic chain Calidora raises $4M for SoCal expansion — Calidora Skin Clinic, a chain of four “medical-aesthetic” skin-care clinics in the Seattle area, raised $4 million in a first funding round to expand its operations into southern California. Roughly half the funding was provided by the company’s existing angel investors and insiders, with Fluke Venture Partners providing the rest.

From the release:

Courtion said the funding enables the completion of expansion plans underway in Manhattan Beach, Marina Del Ray, and Glendale, Calif., and other real estate and partnership opportunities on the near horizon. The company is working with Southern California based Caruso Affiliated, a leading retail developer, on two of the three properties, including the Americana at Brand, which is slated to open in downtown Glendale in Spring of 2008.

SpectraGenics, a Pleasanton, Calif., developer of laser hair-removal devices for home use, raised at least $20 million in a fourth round of funding, VentureWire reports (subscription required). The round was led by De Novo Ventures and Technology Partners; other investors included Aphelion Capital, Incubic Venture Capital and SDL Ventures.

SpectraGenics, which still seems to be fairly stealthy, sells a version of its hair-removal device in Japan under the name i-epi. If you read Japanese, or just want a look at the device and its marketing, check out their Web site.