Following a trend in new fund formation that has seen the rich get richer, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Thursday announced that it has hit up eager limited partners for $1.2 billion, closing two new funds.
The blue-chip Sand Hill Road firm launched its 13th general interest fund, KPCB XIII, garnering $700 million for investment across all the firm's investment sectors of energy and environmental technologies ("which it terms greentech"), information technology and life sciences ventures. It also raised a $500 million Green Growth Fund, which will support later stage greentech companies.
The greentech fund is a tacit acknowledgment that as an industrial sector, much of the new energy and environmental development being funded is fundamentally different from traditional venture areas such as life sciences and information technology. While ideally built on breakthrough technologies, greentech companies are typically more capital intensive in later-stage development, requiring more flexible funding models than traditional venture capital.
Management of the new greentech fund will be shared by longtime Kleiner partner John Denniston and Ben Kortlang, who was previously co-head of alternative energy investments at Goldman, Sachs & Co.
While Kleiner's announcement of the new greentech fund does not specifically address how the fund will differ from the firm's traditional venture funds, it quotes Kortlang saying that "the more mature companies can contribute expertise with market dynamics, financing and regulation," to earlier-stage companies funded from the main fund, recognizing that the model for growing greentech companies to maturity differs from traditional venture-backed companies. With government subsidies and regulatory treatment expected to play a huge role in the development of financing and marketing greentech products and services, the new fund will be something of a pioneer.
With a tip of the hat to how this groundbreaking role might play out, the announcement prominently notes that the Green Growth Fund will work closely with London-based Generation Investment Management, the company formed by Kleiner partner Al Gore that announced a new fund on Tuesday. Generation Investment Management is a limited partner in the new fund. - Clifford Carlsen
See May 1 press release on KPCB XIII fund from Kleiner Perkins
See May 1 press release on Green Growth Fund from Kleiner Perkins
See April 15 story on first-quarter VC capital raising from TechConfidential
See Jan. 10 story on Lazard's new alternative energy approach from TechConfidential
For more, see TechCrunch,, Cleantech and TechAddress
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