Cleantech due for a comeback? Khosla Ventures raises $1.1B, hires former Facebook CFO

Cleantech due for a comeback? Khosla Ventures raises $1.1B, hires former Facebook CFO

Update: Khosla Ventures just sent us a press release confirming the news.

Looks like not everyone’s afraid of the ongoing shakeup of the venture capital industry. Khosla Ventures, the firm headed by Sun Microsystems co-founder Vinod Khosla, has raised two funds totaling $1.1 billion to invest… Continue Reading

Meet the new Midas List, same as the old list

Meet the new Midas List, same as the old list

Forbes has released the latest edition of its Midas List ranking of the top investors, and it’s full of familiar faces. The top four spots are literally identical to last year’s list, with Google backers John Doerr (of Kleiner Perkins), Michael Moritz (of Sequoia Capital),… Continue Reading

Roundup: Green chemicals get started, gaming is ubiquitous, MySpace Music slowed again, and more

Roundup: Green chemicals get started, gaming is ubiquitous, MySpace Music slowed again, and more

Genomatica creates renewable chemical from sugar water — While most chemicals are petroleum-based, several startups are trying to create new alternatives. One of the first to succeed is Genomatica, which says it has a cheap process to make 1,4-butanediol, a component chemical of many common materials,… Continue Reading

Appointment-scheduling startup ZocDoc gets $3M from Khosla

Appointment-scheduling startup ZocDoc gets $3M from Khosla

ZocDoc, the startup that helps users schedule doctors’ appointments online, has raised $3 million from Khosla Ventures.

The New York startup launched last September at the TechCrunch40 conference, and chief executive Cyrus Massoumi says growth has been climbing at an average rate of around 50 percent… Continue Reading

Roundup: Facebook suspends Super Wall, Khosla joins Obama and more

Roundup: Facebook suspends Super Wall, Khosla joins Obama and more

Here’s the latest action:

Facebook suspends RockYou’s Super Wall – The social networking site has turned off the Facebook application’s viral aspects, like invitations and notifications, presumably as part of its efforts to crack down on spammy app activity. RockYou chief executive Lance Tokuda says he’s… Continue Reading

Biofuel battle: WSJ hits Khosla, Khosla hits back

Biofuel battle: WSJ hits Khosla, Khosla hits back

Here’s the danger in becoming a well-known venture capitalist: You may well become the locus for heated debates over cleantech and environmentalism, even when you’re not expecting it. That’s what happened to Vinod Khosla yesterday, when the Wall Street Journal lashed out with a short… Continue Reading

Top 10 tech trends: Smart phones, alternative energies, Boomer technologies

Top 10 tech trends: Smart phones, alternative energies, Boomer technologies

Where is technology headed?

The Churchill Club of Silicon Valley just wrapped up one of its most anticipated events: the Annual Top Ten Tech Trends Debate. Five well-known and opinionated venture capitalists weighed in on what trends will take flight and what trends will fizzle out… Continue Reading

Roundup: “Bubble video” taken down, but singer gets $3M, Bahu, RivalMap, more

Roundup: “Bubble video” taken down, but singer gets $3M, Bahu, RivalMap, more

Here’s the latest action:

1. Bubble Video singer gets $3M
2. Bahu, a social network for European high schoolers
3. Vinod Khosla upset with California regulations
4. Technorati revises its front page yet again
5. Smilebox, a software download for sharing photos, videos and other media, raises $7 million
6. Microsoft… Continue Reading

Vinod Khosla: Hybrid-electric cars won’t make a difference

Vinod Khosla: Hybrid-electric cars won’t make a difference

Vinod Khosla, a well-known venture capitalist and one of the most prolific investors in green technologies, has declared personal war on oil and coal.

He also thinks the environment can be helped by stressing efficiency and finding breakthroughs in new materials.

But hybrid electric cars won’t succeed,… Continue Reading

Ausra aims to build biggest solar thermal plant, raises $40M

Ausra aims to build biggest solar thermal plant, raises $40M

Ausra, an ambitious Silicon Valley company wanting to build a solar thermal electric power plant double the largest ever built, has raised somewhere north of $40 million in a first round of capital.

However, just as Ausra was preparing to make its announcement Monday that it… Continue Reading

Vinod Khosla’s campaign on biofuels

Last week, we pointed to the teary-eyed speech by the well-known venture capitalist John Doerr, arguing for ways to stop global warming.

Now here’s his famous former parter, Vinod Khosla, who left Kleiner Perkins two years ago to invest aggressively in alternative energy, speaking on biofuels.

This… Continue Reading

Khosla backs LanzaTech, carbon monoxide-to-ethanol company, with $3.5M

LanzaTech NZ Ltd., an Auckland, New Zealand company that uses bacterial fermentation to convert carbon monoxide into ethanol, said it has raised $3.5 million (US) in a first round of funding, led by Silicon Valley’s Khosla Ventures.

The technology will contribute to the cellulosic biofuels business… Continue Reading

FatKat to use quant investing to help you pick stocks

FatKat to use quant investing to help you pick stocks

FatKat is the latest company aiming to make sense of the exploding amount of information on the Web and elsewhere to help you make better investment decisions.

It has yet to launch, but the Wellesley Hillis, Mass. company is worthy of mention because it builds on… Continue Reading

Brenco, sugar ethanol company, raises $200M

A San Paulo, Brazil ethanol company, Brenco, has raised $200 million in financing from investors including big-name U.S. investors such as Vinod Khosla, supermarket magnate Ron Burkle and AOL co-founder Steve Case.

The new company, aims to become one of the largest ethanol producers in the… Continue Reading

Grand Challenge downtown, Sparter frees your game $, Visto revisited…

Grand Challenge downtown, Sparter frees your game $, Visto revisited…

Latest round-up in the world of tech:

Defense Department’s Grand Challenge moves downtown — The great annual race of robotic cars, until this year held in the desert, is moving downtown. The DARPA-sponsored event awards the winner $2 million. Unmanned vehicles will attempt to avoid people and… Continue Reading

Green revolution rocks on, Khosla already making money

Green revolution rocks on, Khosla already making money

Latest green technology developments:

Vinod Khosla is rocking after barely two years — Khosla (pictured below), the Silicon Valley venture capitalist who hit it big during the telecom boom in the 1990s, turned two years ago to embrace green technoloy. We thought his outlandish bets on untested… Continue Reading

Green-tech roundup: Khosla flies the coop and more

Green-tech roundup: Khosla flies the coop and more

Green activity continues at a torrid pace, from expansion by green investors like Vinod Khosla into bigger offices, to the embrace of green business models by struggling telecom companies. Are we getting a little heated?

Khosla finally leaves Kleiner nest — Vinod Khosla (pictured left), one of… Continue Reading

Showdown between VCs and oil industry

Showdown between VCs and oil industry

Silicon Valley venture capital firms like Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and lone ranger investors like Vinod Khosla, continue to push for legislation that irks the oil industry.

The New York Times has the latest, citing Kleiner Perkins’ partner John Denniston (pictured here) arguing that renewable… Continue Reading

Ethanol use causing corn shortages, spiking price of tortillas

Ethanol use causing corn shortages, spiking price of tortillas

Tortilla prices are going up, causing hardship for the poor in Mexico, apparently because of all the use of ethanol in the U.S.

The U.S. is making lots of ethanol out of corn, to use as an alternative to gasoline — creating a shortage of corn… Continue Reading

Slide gets big VC round for its slideshow product

Slide gets big VC round for its slideshow product

Slide, the San Francisco start-up that lets you create slide shows from your photos or other content, has raised a large third round of funding from Khosla Ventures and Mayfield Fund.

The amount remains undisclosed, but we’ve heard it is more than the company got for… Continue Reading