Khosla Ventures related stories
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peHUB Wire: Wednesday, January 6, 2010Random Ramblings
Year in Review: CleantechVCs are optimistic that the cleantech sector will resume its hyper growth after slowing in 2009
Year in Review: Time LineA look at key moments in the venture industry over the past year
- More Deals, Fewer $ In 2009 Clean Tech
Venture capitalists invested $4.85 billion in clean tech this year, according to Greentech Media -- a 36% drop from 2008, when they invested $7.6 billion. The number of deals was up slightly, though -- by six -- to 356 deals, and 2009 was still a more active year for investors than 2007. Solar power attracted the most money -- $1.4 billion -- followed by biofuels at $976 million. Smart grids, energy storage and electric cars also drew more money, as did wind, lighting and water. Water is declared to be on "venture capital radar screens" -- it attracted $130 million.
- VCs Compete Hard For Early-Stage Science Projects
Mohr Davidow this month named four researchers -- two from Stanford and two from UC Berkeley -- as recipients of a new Innovators Award that the venture firm designed last year. Each researcher will get $50,000, which Mohr Davidow's partners are taking out of their own fees, to work for a year on a high-risk project. Researchers are picked by senior faculty at their schools and can't be tenured. "This program is designed to identify, award and accelerate the early careers of professors we think have high potential for research and commercialization," said MDV partner Erik Straser. All four winners -- assistant professors Nick Melosh and Thomas Jaramillo at Stanford, UC Berkeley assistant professor Ali Javey, and Delia Milliron, who works at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory -- are pursuing projects that may have applications to clean tech, including new ways to capture solar energy and make buildings more energy efficient. One of last year's winners, assistant professor Yi Cui of Stanford, who specializes in nanotechnology, said he is talking to Mohr Davidow about forming a company
- Week in deals, Dec. 21, 2009
Summary of North American tech companies and other startups that raised venture financing in the past week
- peHUB Wire: Monday, December 21, 2009
Monday Mouth-Off
- peHUB Wire: Monday, December 21, 2009
Monday Mouth-Off
- Message Received: RingCentral CEO Likes Cloud Computing Phone Systems
VC-backed RingCentral was started on a shoestring, with institutional investors arriving relatively late in the game, according to founder and CEO Vlad Shmunis. The Russian-born Shmunis previously founded RingZero Systems in 1992 to sell desktop telecommunications software. RingZero then shipped 25 million units worldwide before it was acquired by Motorola in 1998. A year later, Shmunis spun out part of the business to form RingCentral and has since raised about $24 million in VC funding from Sequoia Capital, DAG Ventures and Khosla Ventures.