Michael Kanellos: September 1, 2009, 11:07 AM

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Khosla Raises Two Funds, Raids Talent From Other Firms

It's officially Vinod Day.

Khosla Ventures formally announced today the formation of two funds: a $250 million fund for very early stage companies and a $750 million fund for early to mid-stage companies. Additionally, two new partners joined the firm: Gideon Yu (who worked at both Facebook and YouTube) and Jim Kim, formerly with CMEA. Earlier in the year, Sequoia and National Semiconductor alum Pierre Lamond joined the firm.

The cumulative billion dollars underscores once again why venture investing plays an integral role in greentech. The interesting part, however, is the $250 million for early stage seed companies. Khosla Ventures has been something of the leader in this space. It has put money into a variety of companies that can even Khosla has called "science projects." Some of the more interesting ones: Kaai and Soraa, two LED companies being incubated by Shujii "father of the blue light LED" Nakamura and Stephen Den Baars; Quos, a desalination membrane, and Topanga, a plasma light company that recently raised money but tends to avoid publicity. Then there is mysterious green cement maker Calera.

Some of these companies will make it and many won't. Still, these early stage companies often concoct some of the more intriguing ideas so they bear watching. A lot of VCs shy away from this sort of investing so I'm glad some people still do it. CMEA and the Quercus Trust are the two othe prominent firms in this area.