The deployment of smart meters combined with the growth of cloud computing infrastructure has created opportunities to build business models around the volume of emerging energy data. Those who use data to solve customer problems and leverage decades of software development and advances in big data will attract investment dollars. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Here’s 13 rare battery startups working on next-generation manufacturing, chemistry and printing technologies. These battery companies could create innovation that could revolutionize electric cars, the power grid and how we charge up our gadgets and cell phones. Read more »
VCs at firms like Sequoia Capital or Andreessen Horowitz might scoff at the call for attention to a positive fund value, but in the cleantech ecosystem a significant positive growth in value is pretty rare. Read more »
In 2013 cleantech investing will move toward companies serving unsubsidized markets where software plays a role in reducing power consumption. In many ways this is a return to plays for energy efficiency, and there’s still money to be made from business models built around saving energy. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
EcoMotors, a startup building an efficient engine, has raised a $32.5 million Series C round led by Braemar Energy Ventures, and including previous investors Khosla Ventures and Bill Gates. Read more »
Liquid Metal Battery, a startup developing a battery for the power grid that already counted Bill Gates and oil giant Total as an investor, has now brought on another high profile backer: Khosla Ventures. Read more »
Mike Moritz, arguably one of the few super VCs has been diagnosed with a rare, incurable medical condition and has decided to take a step back from active daily duties at Sequoia Capital. He still intends to continue making investments and work with younger partners. Read more »
We need “energy miracles,” in at least five areas, and in each of these areas “we need at least two hundred crazy people who think their idea alone can solve this,” said Bill Gates at the Wall Street Journal’s Eco:nomics conference on Thursday night. Read more »
Next-gen biofuel company KiOR has long planned to raise more money to get its first commercial-scale biofuel facilities off the ground. On Friday morning the company revealed that it has raised a new $75 million loan from existing investors Alberta Investment Management and Khosla Ventures. Read more »
Nuclear startup TerraPower, which is backed by Bill Gates, now has a massive Indian conglomerate on its side: Reliance Industries. According to Business Week, Reliance Industries, which owns oil, telecom and retail businesses, has invested a minority stake in TerraPower through one of its energy units. Read more »
Seeo raised $15 million earlier this year, and we know how it’s spending some of that money. The startup has moved into a new home and installed a pilot production line that produces 4 megawatt hours of cells per year. Read more »
QuantumScape is the next battery startup you should know. The early stage company is commercializing technology from Stanford University, and was founded, and is being led by, Infinera co-founder and CEO Jagdeep Singh. Khosla Ventures and Kleiner Perkins have invested in the startup. Read more »
There is no escaping the dark spell cast by Solyndra’s bankruptcy in cleantech discussions these days. At two cleantech conferences in San Francisco this week, speakers gave their takes on the impact of the Solyndra controversy, from money flows to public perception. Read more »
The realization that many greentech startups need more capital and time than expected to commercialize their technologies has sacked some venture capitalists’ enthusiasm for cleantech. Vinod Khosla has a message for them: chin up! There’s good money to be made and I’m doing just fine. Read more »
It’s refreshing to see a little innovation going into the wind industry. On Tuesday, Danotek, a startup that builds a technology called permanent magnetic generators for wind turbines, announced that it has raised $15 million from high-profile investors GE, Khosla Ventures, CMEA Capital, and Statoil Technology. Read more »
There will be no loan guarantee for recently public biofuel company KiOR, at least this year. According to correspondence with the SEC, KiOR put its application for 2011 on hold in May, with plans to roll it over to 2012 — assuming the program gets funded for 2012. Read more »
The cries declaring a cleantech armageddon are coming keep on getting louder. But I don’t think cleantech is headed for a sharp crash. It’s been going through consolidation for some time now, and the cleantech sector is inherently cyclical and is heading into a down cycle. Read more »
Biofuel startup KiOr’s could raise as much as $241.50 million in an IPO on the Nasdaq, at a maximum offering price per share of $21. KiOr estimates that it will price its shares between $19 to $21 per share, and could price shares this week. Read more »
Some of the best ideas on our network sometimes come from reader comments. In response to our piece last week on Why the LinkedIn IPO is Bad For Cleantech, commenter Bill Hewitt, I think hit a nerve with his suggestion: “Clean tech has gone beyond VC.” Read more »
Khosla Ventures, the firm of influential venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, is raising a new $1.05 billion fund — Khosla Ventures IV — according to an SEC filing. The filing comes just a little over a year since the firm closed on $1.3 billion. Read more »
Greentech investor Vinod Khosla saw two of his biofuel companies IPO in recent months — Amyris and Gevo — and at the Wall Street Journal’s ECO:nomics conference on Thursday, he told the audience that a third biofuel IPO would be filed in about 4 weeks. Read more »
LiquidPiston, a company that got its start as a father-son team in a business plan competition at MIT, aims to build a smaller, quieter and more fuel-efficient internal combustion engine than the ones currently being used in cars. Read more »
The inevitable future of clean(er) power is natural gas. Startup Ciris Energy, which uses biotech to convert coal into methane gas, announced this morning that it has brought on high-profile venture investor Khosla Ventures for a Series B round. Read more »
Adobe is extending its AIR application framework across all three screens, including Internet-connected TVs. The announcement could give Adobe a huge leg-up in the race to deliver online games and video content to the living room, but it will need wide support from consumer electronics partners. Read more »
Move over, climate and energy wonks; this is shaping up to be a triple-feature week of the geeks. Steve Jobs talked energy and innovation with President Obama, Bill Gates poured $700,000 into the fight against Prop. 23, and Energy Secretary Steven Chu is heading to Google. Read more »
Hulu might slash the price of Hulu Plus in half, from $9.95 a month to $4.95 a month. The possibility of a price cut could indicate the subscription service, which is still in beta, might not have generated the consumer interest that Hulu had hoped for. Read more »
Lithium-ion battery developer Sakti3 and General Motors announced the latest step in their ongoing dance today, and it’s a big one for the 3-year-old startup: GM plans to invest $3.2 million in Sakti3 through its new venture capital arm, GM Ventures. Read more »
Venture capitalist Vinod Khosla still remains a dominant force in shaping the next-generation of biofuel innovation and could make some of his first returns as a biofuel baron this year. Albeit, likely small returns. Read more »
Bill Gates and Vinod Khosla have just turbo charged diesel engine startup EcoMotors International with a “substantial” amount of second-round financing. EcoMotors announced today that Khosla’s venture capital firm Khosla Ventures and Gates are the “two exclusive investors” in this round. Read more »
While Khosla-backed biofuel startup KiOR has largely been in stealth, KiOR’s President described his company’s technology this week as being able to crunch the millions of years that it takes to carbonize biomass (turn it into fossil fuels) into seconds at the Khosla Venture’s LP meeting. Read more »
