Ben Polito, president and co-founder of Pika Energy

Pika Energy in Westbrook has raised $2 million in a convertible debt round, according to a filing it made last Friday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The company, which began in a basement in Gorham, has developed platform technology that can improve the efficiency of power grids and allow for the seamless incorporation of renewable energy sources, such as solar. It also recently announced a partnership with Panasonic to release a “solar smart battery.”

This new convertible debt round (convertible debt is simply a loan that can be converted to equity in the company at a later date) increases the total amount of capital the company has raised to roughly $8 million. I’ve reached out to Ben Polito, Pika’s president, a number of times for comment, but haven’t heard back from him.

This newest round included 26 investors, according to its Form D.

In a recent Founder Forum interview with Polito, I asked him what his philosophy is on raising money.

“It depends entirely on the goals of the venture,” he told me. “We set ourselves a very ambitious plan to build an electronic platform that makes clean energy significantly more affordable, more efficient, and much easier to install. That implied significant core research spending, IP, manufacturing tooling, and certifications—each of which can be a major six-figure proposition, and at the same time we didn’t just want to be an R&D shop, and that means a robust business development team and real marketing, which is harder to do on non-dilutive funding.”