Despite the lean times and bad press that the cleantech industry has faced, Khosla Ventures has remained consistent in its investment thesis around the promise of renewable energy and energy-efficiency technologies.
It is by far the sector that has raised the most money in the Khosla portfolio, according to data from CrunchBase.
The firm’s interests span everything from energy storage, to efficient building materials, to new emissions reductions technologies.
“There are two categories within cleantech that are seeing some good attention,” says Chung. “Companies in the battery industry are still seeing some good attention… and another area we see a lot of excitement around — because the cost curves are moving in the right direction — is in the lighting space and the energy efficiency space.”
Indeed, Khosla Ventures’ investment in View Inc. was able to raise $100 million for its novel glass manufacturing technology and at the early stage, the firm backed Bidgely last June, which gives homeowners a way to easily monitor and manage their energy use.
Most recently, the firm invested $35 million into Ambri, a developer of battery storage technology.
Image by Flickr user Anders Bergstrom.
