Nov 23, 2015

Conor and Energy Future Invest to Invest $2.5M in Crystalsol Estonian Photovoltaic Start-up Crystalsol OÜ Received EUR 2.5M Seed Investment  Funding Provided by Strong Nordic VC Consortium Consisting of Conor Venture Partners and Energy Future Invest Helsinki, Finland and Tallinn, Estonia, August 30, 2009 – Crystalsol, a Tallinn, Estonia and Vienna, Austria based photovoltaic start-up company, today announced that Conor Venture Partners and Energy Future Invest provide company with funding to accelerate the development of Crystalsol’s revolutionary powder based photovoltaic technology. “Being able to raise seed financing for an entirely new photovoltaic concept in times of industry consolidation proves the strength of our team and intellectual property portfolio”, says Dr. Thomas Badegruber, Managing Director of Crystalsol. “The proceeds, together with generous support by Enterprise Estonia, Austria Wirtschaftsservice, and the Austrian Research Promotion Agency, allow us to dramatically speed up our development process.” Crystalsol is the world’s first photovoltaic company to commercialize the currently most promising new semiconductor material, copper-zinc-tin-sulfoselenide which eliminates the need for scarce metals such as indium and tellurium. Crystalsol’s patented Monograin Membrane technology combines the stability and efficiency of single crystalline materials with high throughput, low temperature roll-to-roll production. Crystalsol was founded in 2008 as a spin-off company from Tallinn University of Technology. Its revolutionary technology and strong patent portfolio is the result of more than 30 years of research and development in the research laboratories of Professors Enn Mellikov and Dieter Meissner in Estonia, Germany, and Austria. “After several years of experience from investments in solar technology companies, we are happy to find and be able to invest in such a breakthrough technology”, says Harald Olderheim, Investment Manager at Energy Future Invest. “Especially the low production costs combined with low material costs make this case promising”, he points out. “We are particularly happy to announce our first investment in Estonia on such highly interesting field of renewable energy. The sound academic semiconductor research combined with strong international business know-how makes this start-up particularly promising”, comments Jari Mieskonen, Managing Partner of Conor Venture Partners. “We also welcome Energy Future Invest as strong energy focused investor to the syndicate for best possible support to the company.” For further information, please contact Thomas Badegruber, Crystalsol, Tel. +43 664 88348341, info@crystalsol.com Jari Mieskonen, Conor Venture Partners, Tel. +358 50 563 6992, jari.mieskonen@conor.vc Harald Olderheim, Energy Future Invest, Tel. +47 9050 2256, harald.olderheim@energyfutureinvest.com