Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) – a leader in providing venture and relationship capital SM services – announced an investment in biofuel leader Altra Inc. (Altra) and the new KPCB Prize for Green Innovation as part of KPCB’s “Greentech Initiative.”

 

“Altra is a national leader in ethanol production,” said John Doerr, KPCB partner. “Its unique, proprietary technology and strong, passionate team make it a sustainable, high-impact business. Altra is creating a nationwide ethanol production footprint by acquiring and ‘speeding up‘ existing, traditional corn-to-ethanol plants and by ’starting up’ new ones.”

With a massive financing of at least $50 million, five private equity and venture capital investors are looking to create one of the country's first renewable fuel companies diversified by both geography and feedstock.

The company, Los Angeles-based Altra Inc., is aiming to take a page from the history of the oil industry, expanding geographically and developing multiple sources for its fuel supply. The hope is that what worked for Standard Oil and John D. Rockefeller can work for Altra and its Chief Executive Officer, Larry Gross.

New Zealand-based Aquaflow Bionomic Corporation announced today that it had produced its first sample of home-grown bio-diesel fuel with algae sourced from local sewerage ponds.

 

“We believe this is the world’s first commercial production of bio-diesel from algae outside the laboratory, in ‘wild’ conditions. To date, bio-diesel from algae has only been tested under controlled laboratory conditions with specially selected and grown algae crops,” explains Aquaflow spokesperson Barrie Leay.