Solexant Solar CEO Switch: Mattson In, Reddy Out
9:00 am in Solar, Solar Finance & VC, Manufacturing, Utility-Scale-Solar, Thin Film, Startups, People, News by info@greentechmedia.com
Brad Mattson, Silicon Valley mover and shaker, has taken over the CEO reins at Solexant, a VC-funded solar startup with about 60 employees.
Mattson is listed as the Executive Chairman of the Board on Linked-in. But an insider has advised that the original CEO, Damoder Reddy, is now the former CEO. And if you dial Reddy's voice line — you're transferred to Brad Mattson's voice mail.
Another colleague suggested that the Solexant Oregon production facility and revenue expectations had not been met and investors had heard too many excuses. And yet another person, a potential customer, had tried to place firm orders for product recently and the CEO would not quote cost or delivery date and postponed sample delivery for test and evaluation.
Damoder Reddy helped found the firm in 2006 and most recently closed $41.5 million of a $64-million-dollar round round C from Olympus Capital Partners, DBL Investors, Brichmere Ventures, Trident Capital, Firelake Capital and Medley Partners.
Reddy said in an interview late last year that Solexant synthesizes "semiconducting nanoparticles" on a "scale never done before." The nanoparticles are applied to a flexible metal foil substrate using an ink-type solution, and although the current photovoltaic material is cadmium telluride, the process is materials-agnostic. Roll-to-roll coating is a 50-year-old technology according to the CEO, and "the secret sauce is in the ink."
Solexant's panels are lighter since they use a single sheet of glass, rather than the typical 'glass sandwich.' Efficiencies are expected to be in the 11-percent range.
The company plans to commercialize solar cells based on other higher efficiency printed nanocrystal materials over the next few years. The goal is to find materials (other than silicon) that are "terawatt materials."
Dr. Damoder Reddy founded the firm along with Prof. Paul Alivisatos of U.C. Berkeley, Prof. Paras Prasad of SUNY Buffalo and Prof. Sue Carter of U.C. Santa Cruz. (Paul Alivisatos inherited DOE Secretary Steve Chu’s old job in running LBNL.) Solexant's CFO, James McNicholas, VP of Engineering Craig Leidholm, and VP of Product Development Paul Adriani all served at Nanosolar prior to joining Solexant. The firm had previously raised more than $20 million in venture funding.
On a recent panel I moderated, Reddy claimed that Solexant endeavors not to depend on government subsidies to be competitive, and that the company is targeting a fifty-cent-per-watt cost and a sales price of one dollar per watt.
Mattson was the CEO and founder of Mattson Technology and Novellus Systems and an executive and entrepreneur in the semiconductor equipment industry. He spent a little over a year as a partner at VC firm Vantage Point Venture Partners where he focused on solar firms and shuttered solar startup Senergen. Sources indicate that his decision-making style did not fit the corporate culture of that venture firm.
Mattson has not yet responded to my inquiries.
Founding CEOs parting with their VC-funded, thin film startups is more the rule than the exception and has occurred at MiaSolé, NanoSolar, HelioVolt, Solyndra, SoloPower, etc.
