Participated · Series A · Mar 2020

mPower Technology is a space solar company developing DragonSCALES, flexible solar modules for spacecraft. DragonSCALES are designed for mass production using standard silicon PV processes, enabling scalable solar power for spacecraft of all types. The company is led by CEO and President Kevin Hell and is based in Albuquerque, NM. mPower recently received a strategic investment from Lockheed Martin Ventures; the amount was not disclosed. The company intends to use the funds to scale production of its DragonSCALES modules. The article did not provide revenue, user metrics, or prior financing details. mPower Technology builds DragonSCALES™, a flexible, interconnected mesh of miniature solar cells designed for spacecraft, leveraging silicon PV and microelectronics manufacturing approaches. The company emphasizes low-cost, high-throughput production and resilient, lightweight designs to serve commercial and national security space missions. mPower highlights more than 12 years of combined on-orbit heritage and a growing customer roster including Airbus, Blue Origin/Honeybee, Firefly Aerospace, Lynk Global and Gravitics. To support demand it is bringing up a high-volume automated manufacturing line at Universal Instruments in Conklin, New York, capable of producing over 2 megawatts of DragonSCALES modules annually. The company holds a contract to supply more than 1.1 megawatts of modules for Airbus’ MDA AURORA™ program. The new capital will be used to scale production capacity, continue advancement of DragonSCALES, and accelerate deployment for next‑generation space missions. mPower Technology develops DragonSCALES™, an interconnected mesh of miniature solar cells that leverages materials, processes, and tools from the silicon photovoltaic and microelectronics industries. The company is led by president and CEO Kevin Hell and is based in Albuquerque, N.M. mPower positions DragonSCALES to enable new design options for solar power through its semiconductor-embedded approach. The firm closed an additional $1.85M in Series A funding as an extension to support product advancement. Proceeds are intended for development, testing, and sales of the DragonSCALES technology. The extension brought the total Series A round to $4.35M. mPower Technology is an Albuquerque, NM-based solar cell technology startup led by president and CEO Kevin Hell. The company has developed DragonSCALEs™ (SemiConductor Active Layer Embedded solar), an interconnected mesh of miniature solar cells. DragonSCALEs leverage affordable materials, processes, and tools from the silicon photovoltaic and microelectronics industries. The technology is intended to remove constraints of existing silicon and gallium arsenide solar solutions and enable new lightweight design options that can be rapidly deployed at low cost. mPower raised $2.5M in a Series A and plans to use the capital to commercialize DragonSCALEs in the aerospace market. Backers included Santa Fe-based Sun Mountain Capital.