Demand fuels Seattle Biodiesel expansion

Martin Tobias drives to work each day in a 2005 Volkswagen Beetle — one that’s entirely powered by soybean oil. The chief executive of Seattle Biodiesel hopes thousands of others soon will follow his lead.

To help achieve that goal, Tobias recently attracted $7.5 million in venture capital financing from Nth Power, Technology Partners and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s Vulcan Capital.

The round, which brings total financing in the two-year-old company to $9.5 million, is among the largest for a U.S. producer of biodiesel fuels, Tobias said.

“We obviously want to be a national company,” he said. “And we think we have a better, faster, cheaper way to make biodiesel that we can replicate all over the country and internationally.”

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER

Full Story: http://www.theolympian.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060211/NEWS06/60211032

Related Story: Seattle Biodiesel set to expand with $7.5 million in venture capital financing from Nth Power, Technology Partners and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s Vulcan Capital. http://www.matr.net/article-17717.html