Khosla fund hits $1B

The new clean-tech funds of California-based Vinod Khosla have recruited about $1 billion, according to the Mercury News. As recently reported by VNC, Khosla's fund was among those that recently won key roles in the management of TCRS's first private-equity investments.

VC: Eco factors will drive Green investing

PBS "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" broadcast a few minutes (video here) ago an update on venture-capital investment in clean-energy and related green technologies. Much of the piece centers around an interview with former Kleiner Perkins VC and co-founder of Sun Microsystems Vinod Khosla (at left), an engineer-cum-VC whose own venture fund is looking for clean-energy investment opportunities. Another interviewee in the piece, as aired tonight, said he thinks VC interest in green investments is already waning -- as VCs choose to pursue later-stage deals in the current buyer's market -- but, Khosla said such cooling of ardor won't change the fundamentals. Said Khosla, Coal and Oil can't be our main solution, 25 years from now, because we cannot sustain a world dependent on fossil fuels. A fuller transcript of the interview with Khosla, from an earlier airing, is posted here.