Sunovia Energy, a troubled LED lighting firm in north Sarasota, has secured $5 million in fresh financing to increase capacity.
The company had been in financial turmoil since early last year when the firm shifted its primary focus from solar to LED light fixtures. Sunovia in January also fired its top executive and brought in Mel Interiano on a consultant role to streamline operations and raise capital.
Interiano has since been appointed as chief executive officer.
The new $5 million financing deal was reached through a matching funds arrangement and will allow Sunovia to keep its doors open and expand its production of Aimed Optics LED fixtures to 10,000 units per month by the end of the year, the company said.
"We have to increase our production in order to increase our revenues and generate profits," Interiano said in a statement. "Currently, there are more customers than there are Aimed Optics fixtures, and my team is now at work developing lean manufacturing processes that will allow us to capture additional market share and grow the company."
Sunovia started as a solar company developing a low-cost alternative to silicon, the element most commonly used to produce solar cells.
But after the bottom fell out of the market, the company turned to LED lighting. It had been producing energy-efficient light fixtures for about three years, but the segment wasn't Sunovia's primary product until last year.
Sunovia collected financial incentives from Sarasota County last April for its expansion on Cattlemen Road, with promises to add 68 new employees over the next few years.
Since that time, however, the company's payroll has dropped from 20 full-time employees to about 10, records show.
Sunovia announced last summer it would need to raise $2 million to cover budgeted cost over the next 12 months to continue operation. The finance deal reached this week meets that requirement.
Sunovia reported a net loss of $4.16 million last year despite total sales of $2.6 million, according to its annual report filed with the Security Exchange Commission in March.
The company's common stock closed the year at 2 cents, down from a 2010 high of 13 cents. About 877 million shares remain outstanding.
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