Cobalt Biofuels has raised $25 million in equity to accelerate the commercialization of biobutanol, an advanced biofuel. The Series C equity round was co-led by LSP and Pinnacle Ventures and included both new and existing investors.
"With this round of funding Cobalt Biofuels will move aggressively toward commercial production of cost effective, non-food based biobutanol,” says Pamela Contag, president and CEO of Cobalt Biofuels.
The Series C round had strong participation from Cobalt Biofuels’ existing institutional investors, including Pinnacle Ventures, Vantage Point Venture Partners, The Malaysian Life Sciences Capital Fund and @Ventures. New investors included LSP and Harris and Harris. Fouad Azzam, General Partner of LSP, will be joining the Board. Cobalt Biofuels’ investor group provides the company access to deep expertise in process scale up and the commercialization of biofuels.
Biobutanol is a next generation biofuel that can be used as a stand alone transportation fuel, as an additive to gasoline or diesel fuel and as an additive to improve the properties of ethanol. Biobutanol can be used at full strength in today’s automobile engines and can be distributed through existing pipelines, in both cases unlike ethanol.
Butanol can also be sold into the industrial chemical market, where it has numerous applications. Cobalt’s unique technology allows it to profitably produce biobutanol from a diverse range of non-food feedstocks, according to the company. As a result, Cobalt Biofuels has the flexibility to site its facilities in a wide range of geographies and use the feedstock available locally. These advantages reduce the cost of the fuel and also increase environmental sustainability across the Cobalt Biofuels value chain.
For more information , visit www.cobaltbiofuels.com.
