Description
Khosla Ventures is an American venture capital firm founded by Vinod Khosla, focused on early stage companies in the Internet, computing, mobile, silicon technology, biotechnology, healthcare and clean technology sectors.
The firm is based in Menlo Park, California and manages investor capital as well as earlier funds funded by Khosla. In September 2017, Khosla Ventures had about $5 billion in assets under management.
History
The firm was founded in 2004 by Vinod Khosla, a former general partner of Kleiner Perkins. The firm's first two investment vehicles were funded with Khosla's own personal capital and were not open to institutional investors. In March 2009, Pierre Lamond became General Partner. In December 2009, Khosla completed fundraising for two new funds, to invest in cleantech and information technology start-ups.
Khosla Ventures Fund III secured $1 billion of investor commitments to invest in traditional early stage and growth stage companies. Khosla also raised $300 million for Khosla Seed, which will invest in higher-risk opportunities and science experiments. The firm has invested in bio-refineries for energy and bioplastics, solar, wind, battery, engines, LED, HVAC efficiency and other environmentally friendly technologies.
Some companies funded by Khosla Ventures include: Academia.edu, Amyris, Bloom Energy, Plastiq Inc., Cosaint Technologies, DB Networks, EcoMotors, GreatPoint Energy, Impossible Foods, Instacart, LS9 Inc., Neverware, Panzura, SeaMicro, Snip.it, Tapingo, Thync, Relcy, and Vectra Networks Inc..
Its investments also include AliveCor, AltaRock Energy, Amyris, AppNexus, Ayasdi, Big Switch Networks, Blockstream, Boku, Boosted, Bridge International Academies, Cadre, Climate Corporation, Cylance, DoorDash and Flow Neuroscience.
As of October 2015, Khosla Ventures was one of the five largest and most active investors in the space sector, which has had over US$10 billion of private capital invested in it since 2005.
