Series A Fuels Lynntech

Testing fuel cells is a business all its own, according to the backers of College Station, Texas-based Lynntech Industries, which announced it raised $5.5 million in Series A funding last week.

According to Jeffrey Bentley, CEO of Lynntech Industries, between $1 billion and $1.5 billion is spent each year on research and development for fuel cells. And about 40%, or between $400 million and $600 million, is spent on fuel cell testing each year. Bentley hopes that his company’s technology can help bring testing costs down to 7 percent.

Bentley says that fuel cell testing services have already caught on within the clean technology industry and that Lynntech Industries has seen the reward. He says that Lynntech Industries has been profitable since 1999.

The Series A financing spins Lynntech Industries out of Lynntech, an energy technology development company, which remains a minority shareholder.

Vancouver, B.C.-based Chrysalix Energy Limited Partnership led the round with a $2 million investment. New York-based Braemar Energy Ventures also invested $2 million and Denver’s Altira invested $1.5 million. Christine Bergeron, vice president of investments for Chrysalix and Neil Suslak, managing director of Braemar, will join Lynntech’s board of directors.

The round has a post-money valuation of more than $10 million and the company expects to close the round with an addition $500,000 within 90 days. The new investor will likely be a strategic corporate investor.

Lynntech Industries plans to open a facility in Boston and expand its College Station facilities, as well. Braemar’s Suslak says that the company may be able to reach cash flow break even point with its current funding but that it could be raising a Series B round within the next two years.