Soladigm grabs another $10M to make smart glass

The company nabbed new investors The Westly Group and Navitas Capital for the oversubscribed round, which was led by DBL Investors and Nano Dimension and included investment from GE, Khosla Ventures and Sigma Partners.

Soladigm makes electrochromic glass that automatically adjusts tint, which can reduce visual glare and cut cooling and heating costs for commercial buildings. It’s a product that fits well in the energy efficiency and building controls sectors, which are both expected to do well this year. The company says its windows can reduce heating and cooling usage by 25 percent and peak load by 30 percent in commercial buildings.

Last year, the company announced a total of $60 million in financing, nabbed a strategic partnership with GE after being named one of the winners in its Ecoimagination challenge and opening its manufacturing facility, with plans to deliver its product on a commercial scale in the first quarter of 2012.

Soladigm was among several winners announced last month in the Ecoimagination challenge, a GE and venture capital-backed contest for clean energy startups. Others are jumping into the tinted glass game. Top glass company Saint-Gobain last year invested $80 million in Sage, a smart glass company with a $72 million conditional loan guarantee from the government for manufacturing facility in Minnesota..

The company said last year it would locate a $130 million factory in Olive Branch, Miss., for which the company received a $40 million loan from the state, as well as $4 million in project improvement incentives.