Greenr - Accelerate the Change!

In a line reminiscent of this blog’s mission, KPCB Partner John Denniston launched a new VC fund with these words: “The world has embarked on the next industrial revolution.”

Kleiner Perkins’ new Green Growth Fund will invest $500 million over the next two to four years in established companies that demonstrate progress in delivering clean-technology innovations, said partner John Denniston, who will co-manage the fund.

At the same time, clean-tech start-ups may join counterparts in information technology and life sciences to seek funding from Kleiner Perkins’ new $700 million KP XIII fund - the 13th in the firm’s storied 35-year history.

The Green Growth Fund comes less than six months after former Vice President Al Gore joined Menlo Park-based Kleiner Perkins as a partner.

- Press Release

KPCB partner John Doerr was talking up the opportunity a year ago at TED stating that green “may be the biggest economic opportunity of the 21st century.”

This kind of money and business building methodology stands in stark contrast to my previous post on open sourcing enabling tools and technologies…but maybe not. Open source leader MySQL was acquired by Sun in January for $1B. If there ends up being a business in giving away the ’secrets’ to sustainability, all the better!

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Ahead of next weeks Cleantech Forum in San Francisco cleantech.com’s David Ehrlich reports on recent cleantech funding deals:

LED and solar power companies pick up some cash, along with deals for waste treatment, lithium ion batteries and wind power. Palo Alto, Calif.-based Ausra, Tel Aviv’s Pythagoras Solar and Cool Earth Solar in Livermore, Calif., all pulled in financing this week for team sun power, with Boulder, Colo.-based Albeo Technologies grabbing some cash for artificial lighting with its LED technology. Continued at: media.cleantech.com.

Its always good news to see cleantech companies funded - but we need to see more, a lot more…

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There’s an urgent call this morning from the Green For All crew:

Bottom line: Congress is about to vote on an $150 Billion economic stimulus package. That’s a LOT of CA$H on the table, and we’ve got a huge opportunity to make sure they don’t F*** it up with the same outdated, failed, and immoral economic strategies that got us into this mess. The best way to do that is to make sure we get a stimulus package that advances the Green For All vision: a clean energy economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty. The petition’s getting delivered in less than 48 hours–and we need you all to jump on it: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/553/t/3751/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=892

Green For All,

YES! Put the money to work - economic stimulus for today, investment for the future. I’ve signed on and I hope will too. More information http://www.greenforall.org/.

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