Catch the Wind secures $18.5M - The Business Review (Albany):

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million in a private placement financing to help push more sales of its new wind sensofor turbines. Manassas-based Catch the Wind, whichb trades on the Toronto Venture soldroughly 16.7 million sharesx at a price of Canadiah $1.30 apiece in what it hopes to be its last majoe financing before generating enough revenue from its lasert wind-sensing product, Vindicator, to pay for Company officials also participated in the investment round, alon with institutional investors, bringing its total private fundraising to date to nearly $30 million. , Researcuh Capital Corp. and Canaccord Capital Corp.
servedx as placement agents for this latest fundraising in returnm for 6 percent of the grosas proceeds and additionalstock options. Spun off last year from LLC, a fiberr optics laser company that still sharee the sameheadquarters space, Catch the Wind has been developing similar technology that senses when wind is imminent, helpinh reorient a turbine to capture that wind befors it passes. Most wind turbines can realign its blades only aftere itfeels wind, so they’re often too late to actuall y benefit from gusts, company official s said.
“Before, it was the horse-and-buggy approacj to measuring wind,” said Phil Rogers, who founded Optical Air Data Systems nearlty 20 years ago with his wife before leaving recentlgy to serve as CEO for Catchthe Wind. “Think about increasing the gas mileage of your he said. “You’ve already bought your car. But if I can sell you something that doubles the gas mileage ofyour car, you woulxd save more money.” He estimates the Vindicatore can capture 10 percent to 15 percen more wind for turbines, whicg in turn helps generate more clean electricity and ultimately revenu e for their operators.
Catch the Wind recently sold its firstg unitto , a Canadian environmentap monitoring equipment maker, while starting its first two-month field test with the Nebraskaz Public Power District on its largesgt wind farm with 36 wind turbines. The local which said it’s also talking to federal agencies, hopes to use that trial’ws results later this summer to market to other wind turbine manufacturers and wind farm Withsix full-time employees, Catch the Wind expectds to at least double that countf by the end of this year. Now with $5.5 millioj in cash and equivalentson hand, the compan is also considering whethef to list itself on an American exchanges later this year.
“We aspire to Rogers said. “I just can’t say when.”