Forbes reports that ace Silicon Valley venture capitalist Vinod Khosla is raising two new funds worth an aggregate $1 billion. One is a $250 million seed fund and the other, $750 million, is for later stage investments — read the report here. The report doesn’t say much about what exactly the two funds will invest in but, clean technology, which has been Khosla’s passion for most of this decade, is likely to be a big focus.
Khosla has been investing in startups from his own capital pool through Khosla Ventures for the last few years. In India, one of his early bets was SKS Microfinance, in which he led Small Industries Development Bank of India and others to invest Rs 11 crore ($2.5 million) in 2006. Khosla Ventures has a wide range in terms of investment ticket sizes (investment per company) from $100,000 to $20 million (or more) and particularly likes companies in the mobile, alternative energy and bio-refineries spaces. That should be a pretty good indicator of what Khosla’s new funds are going to invest in. No doubt that India will be on his radar.
While we wait for Khosla to give out specifics on his investment plans, here’s a look at who else has been investing in clean technology companies in India:
- Venture capitalists and private equity firms invested $131 million in Indian cleantech companies in the second quarter of 2009, according to Cleantech Group — see the press release here. Hyderabad-based Ramky Enviro Engineers picked up $42 million (Rs 200 crore) from Standard Chartered IL&FS Asia Infrastructure Growth Fund — the biggest deal of the quarter.
- Silicon Valley-based Deeya Energy, which has a factory in Gurgaon, raised $30 million in Series C funding from Technology Partners, BlueRun Ventures, DFJ and others in May.
- Last August, Nexus India Capital launched its second India fund with a $220 million corpus. The new fund’s stated investment mandate is to put money in clean technology, among other businesses. It has invested in Mumbai-based SEDEMAC Mechatronics, and IIT Bombay incubated startups that has developed electronic control modules which increase the fuel efficiency and reduce emissions of small engines, and Noida-based D.light Design, which is using solar and LED technologies to provide affordable lighting solutions in villages.
- DFJ is a fairly active investor in the sector. Its portfolio here includes Deeya Energy, D.light Design and Reva.
- Kleiner Perkins Caulfield and Byers (KPCB), which incidentally is the firm where Khosla shot to fame as Silicon Valley’s number on venture capitalist some years ago (he is still an affiliated partner), is also a big cleantech enthusiast. It had invested in Kotak Urja last year. VC Circle has a very timely interview up today with KPCB India partner Ajit Nazre — read here.


Would like to get in touchwith Mr Vinod Khosla for putting forward a proposal on starting a Technical Training School and an Institute on Leadership Development in rural area with the support of the Vinod Khosla’s Fund.