Cobalt Technologies adds Bunge as strategic investor

30 October 2012

Bunge Global Innovation LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of global agribusiness and food company Bunge Limited has joined bio n-butanol company Cobalt Technologies’ Series E Preferred Stock round as a strategic investor.

The investment follows Cobalt’s agreement with Bunge and specialty chemicals company Rhodia Poliamida e Especialidades Ltda. to operate a pilot plant demonstrating the production of n-butanol utilizing sugarcane bagasse as feedstock at the Laboratorio Nacional de Ciencia e Tecnologia do Bioetanol facility in Campinas, Brazil. The terms of the agreement also provide for the parties to work together on co-location of a demonstration scale facility and to consider co-location of a commercial-scale biorefinery at a Bunge sugarcane mill. N-butanol is a widely used industrial chemical found in paints, lacquers and other surface coatings.

All institutional investors from previous rounds participated in the Series E Preferred Stock round, including Pinnacle Ventures, Malaysian Life Sciences Capital Fund, VantagePoint Capital Partners, The Whittemore Collection, Ltd., Life Sciences Partners (LSP), @Ventures and Harris and Harris. Cobalt was advised by Pacific Crest Securities.

By producing low-cost bio n-butanol, Cobalt’s technology enables the use of bio n-butanol as a platform molecule for the production of a broad array of fuels and chemicals, including jet fuel, bio-based plastics and synthetic rubber.