Vinod Khosla

Vinod Khosla born on January 28, 1955 is an India-born and an influential personality in Silicon Valley. Khosla was one of the co-founders of Sun Microsystems where he would serve as first CEO & Chairman in the early 1980s and then became a general partner of the venture capital firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers in 1986 where he would remain through the early 2000s. In 2004 Khosla formed his own firm, Khosla Ventures focused on venture investments in various technology sectors, most notably clean technology.

Khosla's father was in the army and was posted at New Delhi, India. He read about the founding of Intel in Electronic Engineering Times at the age of fourteen and this inspired him to pursue technology as a career. Khosla went on to receive degrees from the IIT Delhi, India (Bachelor of Technology in Electrical Engineering ), Carnegie Mellon University (Masters in Biomedical Engineering), and Stanford Graduate School of Business (MBA).

In 2004 Khosla formed his own venture capital firm, Khosla Ventures. The firm is based in Menlo Park, California and manages approximately $1 billion of investor capital as well as investments funded by Khosla himself.

Vinod Khosla

In September 2009, Khosla completed fundraising for two new funds, to invest in cleantech and information technology start-ups. Khosla Ventures III secured $750 million of investor commitments to invest in traditional early stage and growth stage companies. Khosla also raised $250 million for Khosla Seed, which will invest in higher-risk opportunities. In May 2010 it was announced that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair was to join Khosla Ventures to provide strategic advice regarding investments in environmentally friendly or helpful technologies.