Toledo solar panel spin-out Xunlight closes its doors as the firm files for bankruptcy.
Xunlight, a cleantech spin-out of Toledo University, has filed for bankruptcy as the company plans to liquidate its assets.
Company filings at the US Bankruptcy Court show that the solar panel manufacturer has roughly $1.9m in assets, around $800,000 in inventory and the remainder in financing, but has amassed $28.5m in debts.
Switzerland-based venture capitalist Emerald Technology Ventures is the largest creditor, with Xunlight owing the firm $11.4m. Other creditors include the Huntington National Bank, the Toledo-Lucas Port Authority, several state agencies, and the University of Toledo, which is owed around $1.4m.
University of Toledo Innovation Enterprises, the university’s technology transfer office, invested $3m into the firm, which represented around a third of the organisation’s portfolio book value.
Xunlight, which had raised $33m over two rounds in 2008 and named by news provider TechCrunch as one of its startups best positioned to weather a downturn at the time, saw its primary solar cell product fall to a third of its value from when the company started. The company was founded in 2002 by Xunming Deng, a Toledo academic, who acted as CEO and board chairman until 2012.
