By Steve Gelsi
Khosla Ventures on Tuesday said it raised more than $1 billion
for investments in startups specializing in clean energy,
efficiency, sustainable materials and information technology.
The Silicon Valley venture firm launched by Sun Microsystems
Inc. (JAVA) founder Vinod Khosla said its Khosla Ventures III fund
raised more than $750 million, and its Khosla Ventures Seed drew
more than $250 million - both exceeding their targets.
"We believe the infrastructure of society will be open to
technical reinvention, creating very large new opportunities,"
Khosla commented.
The new funds, according to Khosla, will follow in the vein of
investments over the past five years, including
carbon-sequestration company Calera and biofuel firm Kior.
"CalPERS and Khosla Ventures have built a strong partnership,"
said Joncarlo Mark, senior portfolio manager at CalPERS. "Vinod and
his team have a differentiated strategy toward both investing and
alignment with limited partnerships."
Separately, Khosla said Gideon Yu and Jim Kim will join the firm
as partners.
Yu was most recently chief financial officer of Facebook, and
prior to that was the chief financial officer of YouTube and the
treasurer at Yahoo (YHOO).
Kim previously worked in clean-tech investing at CMEA Capital
and at GE Capital, where he worked with companies including A123
Systems, Danotek and Solyndra.
Khosla founded Menlo Park, Calif.-based Khosla Ventures in 2004
and also was formerly a general partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield
& Byers.
-Steve Gelsi; 415-439-6400; AskNewswires@dowjones.com