The Toronto University spinout has secured seed capital from Sustainable Development Technology Canada.

QD Solar, a solar panel technology spinout of Toronto University, has raised $2.55m in grant funding provided by Sustainable Development Technology Canada, a cleantech-focused investment vehicle funded by the government of Canada.

QD Solar produces solar cells that use nano-engineered, low-cost materials to capture infrared light, resulting in a 20% efficiency increase compared to existing technology.

The panels are based on research conducted at the Nanomaterials for Energy Laboratory in Toronto’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

QD Solar was spun out by Toronto’s Innovations and Partnership Office with the support of Mars Innovation, a commercialisation firm for 15 institutions in Toronto that we profiled in September 2015.

QD Solar obtained $600,000 in proof-of-principle and seed funding as part of the spinout process.

Joel Liederman, vice-president of physical sciences at Mars Innovation, said: “After concluding the work funded by this SDTC investment, we are confident QD Solar’s solar cells will be market ready for private sector investment and product launch.”