Whatever you think of Ellen Pao and her sexual harassment lawsuit against Kleiner Perkins, there are a couple of things we know for sure. She has sparked a watershed moment for women’s rights in the 21st century. And she is sacrificing her entire career for it. Read more »
The venture capital old boys club is just that: old school. And like many things that aren’t working for the traditional VC’s, a failure to evolve is just a competitive disadvantage. Read more »
Kleiner Perkins says it has closed its next $525 million fund 15 and confirms that cleantech-focused investors Ray Lane and Bill Joy will not be leading investments for the new fund. Read more »
Gen110 started out as a solar sales and marketing company in 2009, and now it plans to add other residential energy services and has lined up Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers as an investor to help its expansion, Gen110 said Thursday. Read more »
Derek Collison, the guy who built VMware’s CloudFoundry service, left the hypervisor giant in mid-February with an idea to make platforms as a service even better. His startup, Apcera is the result. Now, with $2.2 million in funding Collison is ready to begin. Read more »
Despite continued struggles for next-gen biofuel makers, VCs are still putting money into startups, particularly when it comes to follow-on rounds. EdeniQ announced that it has raised another round of more than $30 million from investors including Kleiner Perkins, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and The Westly Group. Read more »
Electric car charging network owner Coulomb Technologies has lined up $47.5 million to expand its reach during a year when more new electric vehicle models are showing up. Read more »
It’s no secret that it’s been a rocky road for many venture capitalists that have invested in greentech. Now according to Dow Jones Venture Wire, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, which has one of the largest greentech portfolios, is shifting away from investing in greentech startups. Read more »
Higher education costs have skyrocketed by over 430 percent since the 1980s. Now two startups aim to make college courses more affordable. Coursera offers free online courses from universities like Stanford and Princeton. And a new tool from Akademos helps professors find less expensive — or free — textbooks for their courses. Read more at paidContent »
Kleiner Perkin’s partner Ray Lane is not listed as a general partner on fund documents for prospective limited partners for Kleiner Perkin’s next early stage fund, though Lane will still be active at the firm, reports Fortune’s Dan Primack. Read more »
Harvest Power is raising $110 million from investors including Al Gore’s fund, venture firm Kleiner Perkins and a fund led by former First Solar CEO Michael Ahearn to build out its facilities that turn organic waste into fertilizer and energy. Read more »
Nine more utilities, and three large energy vendors, announced support on Thursday for the Green Button project, which enables utility customers to download their energy consumption data with a click of a button and also use that data for energy-saving apps. Read more »
Grid battery startup Aquion Energy announced on Tuesday that it plans to build a factory in Pennsylvania and begin production of its sodium batteries starting in 2013. Read more »
It’s now clear that the delays for Fisker’s electric car the Karma have veered the company off track. But just how far is Fisker from its original goals? Read more »
Enphase Energy wants to raise money from the public market, but given how much the IPO market sucks these days, the solar power conversion gear company is turning to private investors. The company has raised $21.86 million from a fundraising goal of $81.86 million. Read more »
Kleiner Perkins’s $250 million China fund represents the logical next step in a migration of cleantech investment toward China, points out GigaOM Green IT analyst Adam Lesser. Here’s three reasons cleantech VC dollars are heading east. Read more »
The iPod of thermostats is sold-out until 2012. Nest Labs, makers of the connected, smart, “learning” thermostat, say on their website that the hot thermostat is “sold out through early next year.” In the meantime, the company has closed its online store. Read more »
Exclusive: There are lots of great summer internships at Silicon Valley startups. But top engineering students often pass them up for the money and name recognition companies like Google can provide. So Kleiner Perkins has partnered with InternMatch to attract top-flight students to its portfolio companies. Read more »
Electric car maker startup Fisker Automotive has suddenly been thrust into the spot light being compared to Solyndra. I have mixed feelings on this sudden attack, but here’s 10 things I do know about Fisker, which will hopefully will help give some perspective. Read more »
Bill Joy talked about one of his investments, green building company Solidia, for one of the first times this week. The startup has developed a technology that can make building materials with a far lower carbon and energy footprint than current building materials on the market. Read more »
When an investor or entrepreneur makes high-risk bets on early stage companies, failure is always part of the equation. For Kleiner Perkin’s Bill Joy he says more of the early-stage greentech startups he invests in with fail early, but can turn into something more meaningful. Read more »
Kleiner Perkins has another biofuel and biochemical company up its sleeve. On Tuesday, a Kleiner-backed startup called Renmatix, which makes sugar from biomass that can be turned into biofuel and biochemicals, came out of stealth during an event in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. Read more »
News Corporation has named Accel Partners’ Jim Breyer to its board of directors.The 50-year-old Breyer, a Silicon Valley venture capital veteran known for making early bets on AOL and Facebook, could bring some much-needed digital savvy to the New York City-based media behemoth. Read more »
Clean Power Finance, a solar software and financing startup, has raised $19 million from investors, according to a filing. Investors listed on the company’s filing include Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Partner Ben Kortlang, and Claremont Creek’s Nat Goldhaber. Read more »
Electric car maker Fisker is sending around a picture of celebrity Leonardo DiCaprio driving one of the first Fisker Karmas. But much more quietly the company is also raising another round of $200 million at a valuation of $2.2 billion, according to a report. Read more »
Meet Demet Mutlu, the 30-year-old founder and CEO of Turkey’s top fashion site, Trendyol. She’s used to breaking boundaries at home, but her latest achievement could be among the most important — confirmation that the site is Kleiner Perkins’ first investment in Turkey. Read more »
And now for the clear dip that we’ve all been waiting for. According to a report out on Wednesday morning from Dow Jones VentureSource, with analysis by Ernst & Young, cleantech venture capital investing dropped 44 percent to $1.1 billion. Read more »
For our latest Green Overdrive show we take a peek at Fisker’s extended range electric car the Karma. Read more »
Many of the electric cars I’ve test driven are immediately surprising because of one thing: they’re often times completely silent. But now after some concerns that silent electric cars equal deadly electric cars, some auto makers are developing digital noises to add onto these battery-powered rides. Read more »
While there’s been a perception that Kleiner Perkins has moved away from greentech investing, Kleiner Partner Ray Lane told me in an interview that Kleiner is not pulling back and is expecting 6 to 8 IPOs out of its cleantech portfolio in the coming two years. Read more »
Kleiner Perkins Partner Ray Lane received the world’s second production Fisker Karma, an extended range electric car, on Tuesday. Read more »
Aquion Energy, which is developing a low-cost battery for the power grid made from sodium and water, has closed $20 million of a planned $30 million round and has brought on investor Foundation Capital in addition to existing investor Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Read more »
Silicon Valley’s high profile fuel cell company Bloom Energy has scored its first deal with a telco: AT&T, which said it plans to install 7.5 MW of Bloom’s fuel cells, which it calls Bloom Energy Servers, at 11 AT&T offices in California. Read more »
Silver Spring Networks filed for a potentially $150 million IPO this week, but the group that stands to gain in the short term is Silver Spring’s stead fast venture backer Foundation Capital. Foundation Capital owned 41.5 percent of shares before the offering. Read more »
Luca Technologies, a startup which uses biotech to produce natural gas via naturally-occurring microbes in coal beds, has filed to raise up to $125 million in an IPO, according to its S-1 filing. Luca plans to go public under the symbol LUCA. Read more »
Power conversion startup Transphorm has added yet another high-profile investor to its list of backers: George Soros’ investment fund Quantum Strategic Partners. On Thursday Transphorm announced that it has raised another $25 million from Quantum Strategic Partners, as well as existing investors. Read more »
GE has unveiled the second winners of its smart grid challenge, this time focused on home energy. GE says along with its VC partners, it’s investing another $63 million — of its $200 million fund — into 10 companies and giving $100,000 awards to 5 more. Read more »
While electric car maker Fisker Automotive is in the process of launching its first electric car, the Karma, to dealerships and customers this summer, the auto startup says it is also starting to hire workers for its next-generation electric car, dubbed code name Project Nina. Read more »
Electric bus maker Proterra announced Monday morning that it has raised $30 million from investors including Kleiner Perkins, GM Ventures, and Mitsui. Founded in 2004, Proterra makes drive components and energy storage systems for electric and hybrid buses, delivery vans and other commercial models. Read more »
Cable operator Comcast has turned to a Silicon Valley startup for the software behind its home security and energy management product unveiled on Wednesday: iControl, a Palo Alto, Calif-based company backed by Comcast itself, as well as Kleiner Perkins, Intel Capital, Cisco and Charles River Ventures. Read more »
