LOVELAND — VanDyne SuperTurbo Inc. has raised $3.5 million of an almost $8 million private offering.

VanDyne specializes in the design, development and commercialization of SuperTurbos for the global automotive and truck markets. Its truck-engine management system is designed to improve fuel economy and reduce emissions.

The company filed notice of the funding round as part of a Regulation D filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Dec. 19. The notice describes the round as a “new offering,” with the first sale occurring Dec. 2. The offering is for debt, options, warrants or securities.

Mark Herbst, VanDyne president and CEO, said the new funds will be used for several purposes:

• Continued co-development work with Indianapolis-based Allison Transmission Inc. — first announced in October — on a vehicle demonstration project.
• Working with an undisclosed launch customer on testing in Colorado and Japan.
• Overall commercialization of the SuperTurbo device.
• Execution of an agreement with a Tier 1 strategic automotive supplier that will be the eventual manufacturer of the SuperTurbo device.

The latter, Herbst said, “really gives us credibility in the industry.” He said the supplier posts revenues of more than $5 billion.

“They have a very good reputation in the industry,” Herbst said, and “will be able to come to the table with us.”

He said the Tier 1 supplier will show that VanDyne has “a big partner that’s there to do the commercialization and take it into high-volume manufacturing.”

Prior to the current offering, VanDyne had raised about $29 million in a series of fundings, including a $15 million Series C round in 2014.

VanDyne is a spinoff of Fort Collins-based Woodward Inc. and is located at 3755 Precision Drive in Loveland’s Centerra development. The company employs 20 people.