After a record year for investment in clean technologies, VCs operating in the sector enjoyed another boost during President Bush's State of the Union address on Tuesday.
The president laid out aggressive plans to reduce gasoline usage by 20% by 2017 and proposed doing so in part through a "mandatory Fuels Standard," to boost renewable and alternative fuels by up to 35 billion gallons.
Khosla Ventures' Samir Kaul told The Deal's Carolyn Murphy that this is good news:
"When the president makes a speech like that and sets those kinds of targets, you can be pretty comfortable that there is a big market and there will be a lot of demand for the product if you can get there." The president's mention of alternative as well as renewable fuels, Kaul said, leaves open biodiesel and gas-to-liquid contributing to that 35 billion gallon mark. "The only way that we're going to get there is to have these kinds of goals and vision put forward because it will incent people to make investments."
One Khosla Ventures-backed startup focused on converting cellulose to ethanol is Mascoma, which raised a $30 million round in November led by General Catalyst Partners. The Vinod Khosla-founded firm also participated in the largest venture capital funding last year— a $200 million infusion for ethanol technology company Cilion Inc.
To date, Khosla Ventures has made more than 20 investments in cleantech and sees more than 12 plans on average every week, Kaul said. He thinks the number of proposals will only increase and that the president's remarks will continue to drive the trend.
For more on Khosla Ventures, see:
The Deal
The Huffington Post
News.com
Tags: vinod+khosla, vc, venture+capital, ethanol.
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