Khosla Ventures
Canvas Category Consultancy : Company : Venture Capital
At KV, we fundamentally like large problems that are amenable to technology solutions. We seek out unfair advantages: proprietary and protected technological advances, business model innovations, unique partnerships and top-notch teams.
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Nvidia Invests in Sakana AI's $100 Million Funding Round
Nvidia is investing in Sakana AI and partnering with the artificial-intelligence research company to spur AI development in Japan. Sakana AI, founded by Google engineers in 2023, announced the collaboration with the U.S.-based chip giant on Wednesday, saying it raised over $100 million from a group of investors. The Series A round was led by venture-capital firms New Enterprise Associates, Khosla Ventures and Lux Capital.
The AI lab is building technology aimed at automating the development of foundation models, based on nature-inspired ideas.
Fortera Secures $85M to Accelerate the Global Deployment of Low-Carbon Cement Production
To meet the growing demand to lower the cement industry’s carbon emissions, advanced materials manufacturer Fortera secured $85 million in Series C funding to scale the deployment of its low-carbon cement technology that integrates with existing infrastructure. The round included participation from previous investors Khosla Ventures and Temasek, and first-time investments from Wollemi Capital, NOVA by Saint-Gobain, Presidio Ventures, and Alumni Ventures. With operations at the company’s Redding ReCarb Plant underway, Fortera is positioned to move forward with additional plants that will produce ReAct® green cement, which has 70% less carbon dioxide (CO2) per ton than ordinary cement.
Fortera’s ReCarb process bolts onto existing cement manufacturing plants, captures the industrial CO2 emissions from traditional cement production, and converts it to mineral form to achieve a ready-to-use low-carbon cement. Since the company’s process integrates into established infrastructure, including feedstocks, capital investments, logistics, and sales networks, the path to wide-scale commercialization is shorter and more cost-effective. Fortera’s ReCarb technology operates at a significantly reduced kiln temperature and is compatible with renewable energy integration, which would further reduce emissions and enable zero CO2 cement production.
WindBorne Raises $15 Million to Scale Its Balloon Constellation and Bring AI Weather Modeling to the Fight Against Climate Change
WindBorne Systems, the world’s largest atmospheric sensing system and most accurate AI weather model, announced $15 million in Series A funding led by Khosla Ventures, which earlier led WindBorne’s pre-seed round in 2019 and will take a board seat. Existing investors Footwork VC, Pear VC, and Convective Capital also participated in the round.
The funding round comes three months after WindBorne unveiled its deep learning-based weather forecast model, named WeatherMesh, which has unseated Google DeepMind’s GraphCast as the most accurate medium-range global forecast model in the world. (WindBorne publishes real-time benchmarks for its model.)
“The emergence of generative AI and WindBorne’s AI-native tech stack will enable us to deliver a new, smarter kind of weather experience that’s bespoke and co-creative in ways that software has never been before,” said Kai Marshland, WindBorne co-founder and Chief Product Officer. “The ability to cost-effectively deliver these insights across any industry and company presents an enormous opportunity to not only reduce emissions through smarter energy use, but also to help every community better adapt to the extreme weather that’s intensifying in the wake of climate change.”
WindBorne Raises $15 Million to Scale Its Balloon Constellation and Bring AI Weather Modeling to the Fight Against Climate Change
WindBorne Systems, the world’s largest atmospheric sensing system and most accurate AI weather model, announced $15 million in Series A funding led by Khosla Ventures, which earlier led WindBorne’s pre-seed round in 2019 and will take a board seat. Existing investors Footwork VC, Pear VC, and Convective Capital also participated in the round.
The funding round comes three months after WindBorne unveiled its deep learning-based weather forecast model, named WeatherMesh, which has unseated Google DeepMind’s GraphCast as the most accurate medium-range global forecast model in the world. (WindBorne publishes real-time benchmarks for its model.)
Li Industries Raises Series B Funding to Expand Next-Generation Battery Recycling Technology
Li Industries announced the successful raise of a $36M Series B funding round to scale up its next-generation lithium-ion battery recycling technologies. The round was co-led by Bosch Ventures, Khosla Ventures and LG Technology Ventures with Formosa Smart Energy Tech Corp., Anglo American Decarbonization Ventures and Chevron Technology Ventures coming in as new investors. They join existing investors, Shell Ventures and Myriad Ventures, to back Li Industries’ mission of providing the most circular, cost-effective, and sustainable solution for lithium-ion battery materials, under the guidance of Nobel Laureate Dr. M. Stanley Whittingham. Given investors’ interest, Li Industries plans to expand the round to $42M, which would bring its total private funding to more than $50M.
This new round of funding solidifies Li Industries’ growth trajectory to meet its partners’ growing needs for battery recycling services and battery materials. The capital raised will be used to construct a 10,000 ton recycling facility powered by Li Industries’ proprietary Direct Electrode-to-Electrode (Direct E2ETM) recycling technology. This expansion builds on the company’s Series A funding, which enabled the development of a 500-ton battery recycling facility in Pineville, NC, and a 1,000-ton battery sorting facility in Charlotte, NC.
Khosla leads $245M geologic hydrogen deal
Koloma, a startup aiming to lead a new industry based on extracting carbon-free hydrogen from natural underground deposits, just raised $245.7 million in a financing round that positions it to stay ahead of competitors in this developing clean energy field.
The Denver-based company disclosed the new funds in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Feb. 9, a day after winning a research grant from a U.S. Energy Department program to refine methods to stimulate underground hydrogen production and extract the elemental fuel. The round was led by Khosla Ventures and included investment from Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund and United Airline’s Sustainable Flight Fund. They join previous cleantech backers including Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Energy Impact Partners, boosting Koloma’s total funding to more than $300 million.
Mojo Vision Closes Successful New Series A Funding Round with $43.5M to Drive Micro-LED Development and Commercialization
Mojo Vision, the high-performance micro-LED company, today announced a final close of its $43.5 million new Series A investment round to advance its micro-LED display technology across applications and bring it to commercialization. The funding round is led by long-time investors New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and Khosla Ventures, and new investor Vanedge Capital, with participation from Shanda Grab Ventures, Dolby Family Ventures, Advantech Capital, Liberty Global Ventures, Drew Perkins, Fusion Fund, Open Field Capital and Knollwood Investment Fund. The final close comes six months after the company announced an initial Series A close of $22.4 million.
Vayu Robotics Emerges from Stealth with $12.7 Million in Seed Funding
Vayu Robotics, an AI company providing high-quality, low-cost robotics solutions, today announced closure of its seed financing round of $12.7 Million led by Khosla Ventures, with participation from Lockheed Martin Ventures, ReMY Investors and others. Vayu is a non-traditional robotics company taking a principles-first approach to solve for cost and ease of deployment through two key technologies: a foundation model for mobility and a disruptive low-cost sensing technology that could replace lidar in many mid-range applications. This round of funding will enable Vayu to scale product development for AI robotics across markets, including last-mile delivery, factory automation and automotive.
Micro-fulfillment center automation startup Fulfil Solutions gains $60 million in funding
Fulfil Solutions announced today that it has emerged from stealth, with a B funding round of $60 million, and touting its robotic solution for grocery micro-fulfillment centers (MFCs), which it adds can be implemented in way that makes MFCs profitable. The $60 million Series B round of funding led by Eclipse with participation from Khosla Ventures and DCVC.
LuxWall Raises $33 Million Funding To Scale Production Of Their 'Net Zero Glass'
Acting as a thermos bottle for buildings, LuxWall’s transparent insulation Net Zero Glass can cut energy consumption and carbon emissions by up to 45% and significantly reduce owner payback through energy cost savings.
LuxWall, a startup producing Net Zero Glass technology, is announcing its $33 million Series A funding round. The round is led by 2150, with participation from Khosla Ventures and current investors Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV) and Prelude Ventures. Following LuxWall’s $6 million seed round in 2021, this brings the total funding raised to $39 million.
The latest funding will go toward scaling the production of their Net Zero Glass technology at ‘LuxWall Factory 1’, the company’s first purpose-built commercial factory, which is a scaling extension of LuxWall’s pilot production line commissioned in 2022.
Varda Raises $42MM Series A, to build humanity’s first Space Factories
Varda Space Industries, a company building space factories, announced a $42mm Series A. The company — founded just 8 months ago — has raised over $53mm to date, showing the appetite for Varda’s near-term, pragmatic, and commercially viable approach to space manufacturing. The company produces an assortment of materials that are only possible to make in the zero-gravity environment of space and brings them back to customers on Earth. The company will launch its first space factory in Q1 2023 and return a first batch to Earth a month later.
Velo3D Raises $28 Million in Series D Funding Round, Paving the Way for Product Expansion
Digital manufacturing innovator Velo3D announced today that it has raised $28 million in a Series D funding round. New investors Piva and TNSC joined the round, along with existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners, Playground, and Khosla Ventures. This brings Velo3D’s total funding to $138 million. Velo3D plans to use the new capital to expand its product portfolio to include more machine options, compatible alloys, and enhanced software and hardware capabilities. The company anticipates that the injection of fresh capital will help them reach sustainable profitability by mid-2022.