Press release
Freiburg, Germany, June 7, 2022 – NexWafe GmbH today announced Bruno Laranjeira has joined the company as Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Laranjeira brings significant startup venture and energy market experience to NexWafe and will help the company scale its finance and administrations functions.
“Bruno’s background and experience are tightly aligned with the needs of the company, particularly as we position NexWafe for a Series D funding round,” said Davor Sutija, CEO, NexWafe. “His multi-layered expertise in strategy and finance and demonstrated track record of impact in high-growth environments make Bruno the ideal executive to drive our financial strategy now and in the future.”
NexWafe recently closed its Series C funding round with an additional 7 million Euros in the second close. This brings the total Series C financing to 39M Euros. These funds will be used to complete product and technology development for NexWafe’s solar photovoltaic products on prototype lines in Freiburg. The funding from the projected Series D round will advance the construction of NexWafe’s pilot facility scheduled to break ground early next year.
NexWafe is creating processes to develop and produce high-efficiency monocrystalline silicon wafers directly from inexpensive raw materials, going directly from the gas phase to finished wafers. This unique, patented wafer manufacturing solution significantly reduces production costs, cuts carbon emissions by more than 70 percent when compared to traditional processes and is leading the path to solar cell efficiency of over 30 percent. NexWafe is a member of the Ultra Low-Carbon Solar Alliance, Solar Power Europe and the European Solar Manufacturing Council.
Prior to his new position with NexWafe, Mr. Laranjeira served as the CFO of Dott and in various executive-level financial roles at The AES Corporation. He was also an Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company where he worked together with clients to solve complex business problems and implement solutions for sustainable value creation. Mr. Laranjeira earned a Ph.D. in Finance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). He was awarded the UIUC Carey Memorial Fellowship in Finance, the Brandt Fellowship, and the University Fellowship for his research on corporate finance. He published his research in the NBER working paper series and in the Critical Finance Review journal.
Frank Siebke, a co-founder of NexWafe who served as CFO since the company’s inception, is moving to the position of SVP Strategic Business Development.
About NexWafe GmbH
NexWafe GmbH designs, develops and pilots a proprietary process to produce ultra-thin, high efficiency, monocrystalline green solar wafers to make photovoltaics more sustainable and efficient. Fully compatible with conventional solar cell manufacturing, NexWafe offers a 70% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions during manufacturing. NexWafe’s continuous, direct gas-to-wafer manufacturing process also minimizes waste, resulting in wafers that are 30% less expensive than conventional wafers. NexWafe’s in-line, ultra-scalable process shatters cost down roadmap barriers and inherently supports the industry’s extraordinary growth as the transition to solar power accelerates worldwide. The company was spun out from Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE in 2015.
For more information, please visit https://www.nexwafe.com and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.
Contact:
Jenna Beaucage, Rainier Communications
nexwafe@rainierco.com
508-340-6851
