Catch the Wind secures $18.8M - Houston Business Journal:

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million in a private placemenr financing to help push more sales of its new wind sensorefor turbines. Manassas-based Catch the which trades on the Toronto Venture soldroughly 16.7 million sharese at a price of Canadian $1.30 apiece in what it hopesd to be its last majoer equity financing before generating enough revenure from its laser wind-sensing product, to pay for operations. Company officials also participate d in theinvestment round, along with institutional bringing its total equitgy fundraising to date to nearly $35 , Research Capital Corp. and Canaccord Capitak Corp.
served as placemen t agents for this latestt fundraising in return for 6 percent of the gross proceed and additionalstock options. Spun off last year from LLC, a fibe r optics laser company that still sharea the sameheadquarters space, Catch the Wind has been developing similard technology that senses when wind is imminent, helpingf reorient a turbine to capture that wind befor e it passes. Most wind turbinexs can realign its blades only after itfeels wind, so they’re often too late to actuall benefit from gusts, company officials said.
“Before, it was the horse-and-bugguy approach to measuring wind,” said Phil Rogers, who foundecd Optical Air Data Systems nearly 20 years ago with his wife beforee leaving recently to serve as CEO for Catc hthe Wind. “Think about increasing the gas mileage of your he said. “You’ve already bought your car. But if I can sell you somethinh that doubles the gas mileage ofyour car, you would save more He estimates the Vindicatort can capture 10 percent to 30 percent more wind for which in turn helps generate more clean electricitt and ultimately revenue for theirt operators.
Catch the Wind recently sold its firs t unitto , a Canadian environmental monitorinbg equipment maker, while starting its first two-month field test with the Nebraskaa Public Power District on its largesy wind farm with 36 wind The local company, which said it’s also talking to federal agencies, hopes to use that trial’s resultzs later this summer to marker to other wind turbine manufacturers and wind farm operators. With six full-timwe employees, Catch the Wind expect s to at least double that count by the end of this The company, which had $5.
5 million in cash and equivalents on hand as of Marcn 31, is also considering whether to list itselr on an American exchange later this year. “Wes aspire to that,” Rogers said. “Ij just can’t say when.”