Seal Beach-based Amonix Inc. said it raised $129 million in a second funding round in what’s likely one of the biggest venture investments to date in Orange County.
Amonix designs and makes solar power panels that are used to generate energy by operating in sunny, dry climates.
Because of their size, the panels typically are used in deserts.
The privately held company doesn’t disclose financials.
The most recent investment was led by Menlo Park-based Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers, which is known for alternative energy investments and counts former Vice President Al Gore as a partner.
Other participants included Adams Street Partners, Angeleno Group, PCG Clean Energy and Technology Fund, Vedanta Capital LP, New Silk Route, The Westly Group and current investor MissionPoint Capital Partners.
Amonix said it’s set to use the money to ramp up deployments of its solar power systems and expand its manufacturing capacity.
Including the most recent round, Amonix has raised nearly $200 million to date from both private and government sources.
A few years ago, it raised $25 million in initial round of funding from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and MissionPoint Capital.
It also received $16 million in grant funding through the Department of Energy Solar America Initiative.
Earlier this year, it landed some $10 million in stimulus funding as part of the federal Recovery Act’s Advanced Energy Manufacturing Tax Credit.
The federal money is earmarked to add some 400 manufacturing jobs in clean energy at two plants in Nevada and Arizona.
Amonix’s funding ranks amongst the biggest in the area.
Irvine’s Fisker Automotive Inc., a maker of electric cars, has raised about $200 million in private financing, including from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
In January, Fisker raised about $115 million in private equity funding on top of a $529 million U.S. Department of Energy loan it received.
Irvine’s Specific Media Inc., an online advertising startup, raised $100 million in late 2008.
Amonix was started in 1989 in Torrance. It moved its headquarters to Seal Beach last year, where it has a 75,000-square-foot factory. It also has a research and development center in Torrance.
Amonix’s Chief Executive Brian Robertson joined in November. Earlier, he served as president at Maryland’s SunEdison LLC, a solar power company that was bought by silicon wafer maker MEMC Electronic Materials Inc. of Missouri late last year.
Robertson took over for Amonix founder Vahan Garboushian, who is focusing on his role as chairman and chief technology officer.
The technology Garboushian used to start Amonix is based on using concentrated light to generate electricity.
The company’s rivals include Tempe, Ariz.-based First Solar Inc.
