Xtreme Power ramping up Central Texas hiring, adding Austin office
Buoyed by $29.5 million in fresh venture capital, Kyle-based energy storage and power management systems provider Xtreme Power Inc. plans to double the size of its Central Texas workforce by the end of 2011 and to open an Austin office soon.
Darrell Hayslip (second photo), the company’s chief development officer, says Xtreme Power aims to add a total of 60 to 70 employees in Kyle and Austin before the close of next year. Now, the company employs about 60 to 70 people in Kyle.
Xtreme Power has leased about 5,000 square feet on Congress Avenue in downtown Austin primarily for sales and marketing efforts, founder and CEO Carlos Coe (top photo) told the Austin American-Statesman. Hayslip says the company’s headquarters will remain in Kyle.
Hayslip says the new hires in Central Texas will be divided between the Kyle headquarters and the new Austin office. Xtreme Power also employs about 60 to 70 people at a manufacturing plant in Grove, Okla., near Tulsa.
Currently, Xtreme Power has openings for four engineering jobs in Kyle and one financial analysis position in Austin. For information about careers at Xtreme Power, click here.
Going forward, the company will be filling Central Texas positions in business development, sales and marketing, engineering, legal, accounting, fabrication and assembly, Hayslip says.
Xtreme Power, founded in 2004, is seeking job candidates with flexibility, integrity and a strong work ethic, he says. “When you have an environment with growth, everybody in the company is wearing a lot of hats,” says Hayslip, who joined Xtreme Power in February.
$29.5 million infusion
In late July, Xtreme Power announced it received $29.5 million in venture capital from an array of investors, including Bessemer Venture Partners, The Dow Chemical Co., SAIL Venture Partners LLC, Fluor Corp., POSCO ICT Co. Ltd. and SkyLake Incuvest & Co.
“Xtreme Power’s technology significantly enhances the value that renewable energy generators provide to the grid, enabling smoother delivery of power and greater compliance with utility standards,” says Hank Habicht, an Xtreme Power board member and managing partner at SAIL.
Coe, the CEO, has predicted the company’s revenue will exceed $20 million this year and $75 million in 2011.
Last year, Xtreme Power attracted $5 million in venture capital from SAIL Venture Partners. In 2007, Xtreme Power received $2 million from the Texas Emerging Technology Fund.
Part of the $29.5 million in new funding will help Xtreme Power install an energy storage system at a wind project on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. Kahuku Wind just received a $117 million loan guarantee for the project from the U.S. Department of Energy.
Economic renewal in Michigan
Another portion of the $29.5 million will be earmarked for a project that Xtreme Power is developing in Michigan.
Hayslip says Xtreme Power is working “very diligently” to transform a former auto manufacturing plant northwest of Detroit into a “renewable energy park.” Xtreme Power has indicated it will create as many as 2,500 manufacturing-oriented jobs there.
Through a $725 million joint venture, Xtreme Power and Santa Barbara, Calif.-based Clairvoyant Energy Solar Panel Manufacturing Inc. are slated to convert Ford Motor Co.’s shuttered Wixom plant for renewable energy ventures. Last year, Ford agreed to sell the plant to Xtreme Power and Clairvoyant, which have committed to retooling the 320-acre site and its 4.7 million square feet of manufacturing space.
Xtreme Power is set to invest about $475 million in the more than 1 million square feet it will occupy at the Wixom site. In 2009, the company obtained $100 million in clean energy tax credits for the project from the Michigan Economic Growth Authority.
Last month, Michigan lawmakers lifted a provision tied to the tax credits that required Xtreme Power to secure a Department of Energy loan guarantee for the Wixom project. Now, the loan guarantee is one of three financing options available to Xtreme Power, according to Crain’s Detroit Business. In a statement to the Detroit publication, Xtreme Power said it is “still actively pursuing the loan guarantee with the DOE.”
To watch a video of Carlos Coe talking about the Michigan project, click here.
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