Vinod Khosla-led Silicon Valley venture capital firm Khosla Ventures has raised a new $1.05 billion fund called the Khosla Ventures IV to make early-stage investments in the areas of clean tech, IT, mobile and Internet technology.
“We have identified the 'Clean Dozen' companies in clean tech that can achieve unsubsidised market competitiveness and the 'Cool Dozen' categories in Internet and mobile in the post-PC world such as big data, emotion, interest graphs and consumer health,” said Khosla Ventures founder Vinod Khosla.
Khosla Ventures IV follows the Khosla Ventures III fund and Khosla Ventures seed fund. The Khosla Ventures III fund of $1 billion of investor commitments focused on traditional early stage and growth stage companies. Khosla Ventures also previously raised $300 million for the Khosla Ventures seed fund which invests in high-risk, high-return opportunities, particularly groundbreaking science or internet developments, besides traditional venture investments.
In India Khosla Ventures direct exposure includes Sunborne Energy Technologies Pvt Ltd.
Khosla Ventures will continue to do Internet, mobile and the clean tech ventures roughly in the same ratio as previous funds. The firm will also continue to invest in IT and cloud services as well as new areas outside of traditional venture capital.
“We don't mind failing but do care that the impact be material if we do succeed; and we believe that our willingness to fail gives us an ability to succeed. We will continue to not compute IRR’s when investing as we believe in helping entrepreneurs build companies with high impact and high option value that are not subject to traditional financial metrics,” Khosla said.
“In clean tech, our IPO’s and other exits that have generated almost a billion dollars in profits personify this strategy. We endeavor to be the earliest investors in disruptive Internet and mobile companies which have gone on to complete exciting financings such as Square, Jawbone, ZocDoc and Lookout,” he added.
Founded by Vinod Khosla in 2004, Khosla Ventures is investing in technology processes of the future. The Khosla Ventures IV fund comes after three biofuels and biochemical portfolio companies have completed successful initial public offerings. This includes Amyris, an industrial synthetic biology platform; Gevo, a renewable chemicals and advanced biofuels company; and KiOR, a renewable fuels company that has developed a proprietary technology platform to convert biomass into renewable gasoline and diesel blendstocks.
