10 Khosla Biofuel Bets
Vinod Khosla, the 52-year venture capitalist and founder of Khosla Ventures and Sun Microsystems, is leading Silicon Valley’s biofuel gold rush. Controversial to some (corn ethanol critics) and put on a pedestal by others (venture investors that follow his lead), he’s made at least 10 biofuel bets in recent years. While biofuels are facing a backlash at the moment — and Khosla himself drives a Lexus Hybrid — Khosla has invested significant money into supporting the industry.
| Company | Funding | Technology | Founded | CEO |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cilion Goshen, Calif. | $200M, Khosla Ventures, Western Milling, Virgin Fuels, Ron Burkle, The Yucaipa Companies | Converts corn into ethanol to power cars and trucks. | 2006 | Mark L. Noetzel, President and CEO |
| Hawaii BioEnergy Honolulu | Khosla Ventures, Finistere Ventures | Researching the development of ethanol plants on Hawaiian islands. | 2006 | NA |
| Mascoma Corporation Cambridge, Mass. | $39M, Khosla Ventures, Flagship Ventures, General Catalyst Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Vantage Point Venture Partners, Atlas Venture, Pinnacle Ventures | Producer of biofuels from lignocellulosic biomass using microorganisms and enzymes. | 2006 | Bruce A. Jamerson |
| RangeFuels Broomfield, Colo. | Undisclosed round from Khosla, plus a $75M grant from DOE. Is in “fundraising mode” with IPO dreams in 2008 | Uses a thermochemical process to turn biomass into synthetic gas and then fuel | 2006 | CEO Mitch Mandich |
| Coskata Energy Warrenville, Ill. | stealthmode | |||
| Gevo Pasadena, CA | Reported as $10M, Series B, Khosla Ventures, Virgin Fuels (specifically Virgin Green Fund) | An enzyme process, developed at Caltech, that convert biomass to next-gen biofuels like butanol, which can be used in the existing petroleum supply chain. | 2005 | Patrick Gruber |
| LS9 San Carlos, Calif. | $20 million, Series B, Khosla Ventures, Flagship Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners | Uses synthetic biology to develop biofuels from traditional feedstocks that contain more energy than current biofuels, require less energy to produce and can be distributed through the existing petroleum infrastructure. | 2005 | No current CEO |
| AltraBiofuels Los Angeles, Calif. | Over $415M from Khosla Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers, Angeleno Group, Omninet Private Equity, Sage Capital Partners | Leverages various kinds of biofuel manufacturing processes. | 2004 | CEO Larry Gross |
| Amyris Biotechnologies Emeryville, Calif. | $20 million series A, working on a $70 million series B, DAG Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, and TPG Ventures | Uses synthetic biology to create biofuels that can replace gas, diesel and jet fuel; its genetic processes are also used to deliver low cost anti-malarial drugs. | 2003 | CEO John Melo |
| Celunol, (now Verenium) Cambridge, Mass. | Trades on the NASDAQ. Bought by Diversa for $150M+. Became Verenium this year. Reportedly raised more than $60M from Khosla Ventures, Braemar Energy Ventures, Charles River, Rho Ventures | Produces enzyme based cellulosic ethanol. | 1994 | CEO Verenium, Carlos Riva |
[...] National Geographic and Wired. They were mentioned in the State of the Union address. They’re raising hundreds of millions of dollars in venture capital — and yet they sometimes smell like French fries. Yep, we’re talking about biofuels. [...]
[...] National Geographic and Wired. They were mentioned in the State of the Union address. They’re raising hundreds of millions of dollars in venture capital. And they’re on video. Yep, we’re talking about biofuels. Check out these biofuel video [...]
[...] National Geographic and Wired. They were mentioned in the State of the Union address. They’re raising hundreds of millions of dollars in venture capital. And they’re on video. Yep, we’re talking about biofuels. Check out these biofuel video [...]
[...] Earth2Tech has an interesting post detailing the 10 big biofuel bets that Silicon Valley venture capitalist Vinod Khosla has made. The question is, as the debate about biofuels picks up and bigger questions get asked, is whether they’re going to pay off. Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]
[...] destination — be it the feedstock or the pumping station — isn’t a new idea. Several of Vinod Khosla’s biofuel investments are focused on cutting down the energy, and thus the cost, expended in transportation. This morning [...]
[...] destination — be it the feedstock or the pumping station — isn’t a new idea. Several of Vinod Khosla’s biofuel investments are focused on cutting down the energy, and thus the cost, expended in transportation. This morning [...]
This is fascinating. I had no idea he was so deeply into this stuff.
[...] States. But does “the biofuel revolution” actually benefit these communities or just Vinod Khosla? That’s the topic that Kansas State researchers will tackle with the $696,000 grant they [...]
[...] now has at least a dozen investments in biofuel startups, (Check out 10 here). He’s betting on a variety of technologies — using enzymes, thermochemistry and [...]
[...] tech. Between now and 2012, a new pool of government grants and funding could fund an awful lot of bioenergy startups, as well as fuel ongoing research. Digg Stumble Reddit del.icio.us Email « PG&E [...]
[...] the right enzyme could do the trick. Venture capitalists are poring money into biofuel startups and Vinod Khosla has over a dozen biofuel investments already. And with new potential subsidies for biomass crops in the U.S. Farm Bill and an uncertain future [...]
[...] cleantech startups to date and has made investments in solar photovoltaic startup Stion, as well as LS9, Coaltek, and Solazyme among others. Lightspeed closed a $480 million fund — Lightspeed VII [...]
[...] Ethos, which aims to become a player in Latin American ethanol production. The investment follows more than 10 other bets that Khosla has made on biofuels over the last couple of years, from synthetic biology companies [...]
[...] Ethos, which aims to become a player in Latin American ethanol production. The investment follows more than 10 other bets that Khosla has made on biofuels over the last couple of years, from synthetic biology companies [...]
[...] Khosla’s more than a dozen biofuel investments, backing EcoMotors is a play at making traditional vehicles more energy efficient. While getting [...]
[...] Posted January 17th, 2008 at 3:58 pm in Startups The cleantech investor that’s been spreading his chips across a dozen or so biofuel startups over the past year, Vinod Khosla, has lately been focused on those aimed at making [...]
[...] No Comments Posted February 11th, 2008 at 10:38 am in Startups Vinod Khosla, who has seeded more than a dozen biofuel startups, can quite comfortably lay claim to the “Baron of Biofuels” title. But apparently his [...]
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[...] enough, Verenium was also previously a Khosla investment. Founded in 1994 as Celunol, the company reportedly raised more than $60 million from Khosla [...]
[...] “the largest cleantech portfolio on the planet,” a large portion of which consists of more than a dozen startups looking to develop both corn-based and next-generation biofuel [...]
[...] has already invested in at least these 10 biofuel startups (and more since then), from corn-based ethanol maker Cilion Goshen to synthetic biology company LS9 [...]
[...] former ethics chairman, Jack Boykin, and backed by both Silicon Valley cleantech investors Khosla Ventures and pulp maker Parsons & Whittemore Enterprises, to pay more than $10.4 million in a fraud [...]