Mississauga, Ontario-based startup 6N Silicon Inc. has raised up to $20 million in a second round of financing. The company's goal is to be the lowest-cost provider of solar-grade silicon that doesn't need to be blended with high-purity silicon. It has come up with a proprietary, low-energy process, which can be inexpensively scaled up, for upgrading standard metallurgical-grade silcon into solar grade silicon. 6N wants to be one of the industry's leading suppliers of solar-grade silicon within three to five years.

Venture capital group Good Energies led the round, which includes previous investors Yaletown Venture Partners and Ventures West. 6N, founded less than two years ago by current president and chief technology officer Scott Nichol, raised $6 million last July and has been moving quite fast on its plans for commercial-scale production. "This is clearly an important milestone for 6N, and we are looking forward to entering our initial production phase and then ramping up aggressively from there," said David Dunnison, vice-president of business development.