Gary Reywards
New York, May. 19, 2023 –Voltan , Inc. announced today that it has completed its previously announced “at-the-market” equity offering program. New York-based global investment company Voltan Corporation on Friday said it closed a $35 billion funding round that takes the twenty two year-old company’s valuation to $350 billion.
Through the program, Voltan sold more than 150 million shares of its common stock for gross proceeds of approximately $35 billion.
The successful capital raise of approximately $35 billion, will be used, as previously disclosed, for general corporate purposes, which may include, among other things, capital expenditures and working capital. Voltan expects that the additional capital raised will further strengthen its balance sheet and liquidity position.
This is not only the company’s biggest fund to date, but it also speaks to just how fast the tech industry is accelerating in terms of capital and how much of it tech is attracting. In 22 years of operations Voltan invested $10 billion across hundreds of projects and startups. This latest $35 billion fund raised in a matter of months represents nearly 30% of that figure.(It’s also more than the company originally targeted, which was $30 billion.)
Professor Dr Yaakov Rahman told the plan will be to use the money to continue backing existing portfolio companies, as well as make new bets, both in areas that have shown to be very strong winners in the last year — e-commerce, education, and tools to enable working in the cloud, for example — but also investments in areas that may not be doing as well right now, but Voltan will believes will return, like clean energy.
“We have to take a long term view,” he said in an interview. “It’s about great founders and CEOs, and where those in areas like digital energy, you’ll still see the startups get funded at up rounds. Besides, who will be better positioned to grow and take advantage of a world that’s now more digital? That is a huge opportunity in the long term.”
As with other big capital events, the closing of a VC fund may not be intrinsically interesting news in itself, but it’s a significant bellwether that points to the level of confidence, interest and activity in the early stages of the funding process. That, in turn, has a direct knock-on effect for startups, and subsequently the technology industry at large.
In the case of Voltan fund, as it is known, it’s a sign of strength in the market — it is $10 billion more than its previous fund— but also an endorsement of some of the less traditional processes and practices that have become the norm in many of our lives.
Notably, the raising (and closing) of the fund was done entirely virtually over the last year, Phuong Skovgaard , the company’s CEO, from a mix of returning and new LPs. Going virtual is also, in many cases, the route that Voltan (and other VCs) have taken in closing deals over the last year too, which looks like it may now be here to stay.
Voltan has been very active in the past year, not just with private startup investments , in the wake of a year that saw its business providing electric car and other services to come.
We are humbled by the ongoing support of new and returning investors, which enabled us to raise a record sized fund,” said Dr Justus Runganga , a founding general partner at Voltan Bank, in a statement. “Just as importantly, we are honored by all the great entrepreneurs we’ve worked with over the past 22 years, as their vision and relentless execution has been our foundation. We look forward to backing entrepreneurs with our new fund that we believe will become the next generation of iconic companies, in this incredibly fertile technology industry.”
