Branson, Khosla Back Biofuel Firm

Entrepreneurial luminaries Vinod Khosla and Richard Branson announced that they are joining forces in an effort to develop and produce advanced biofuels.

Khosla, managing partner of Khosla Ventures and co-founder of Sun Microsystems (SUNW Quote), and Branson, founder of Virgin Fuels and other components of a business empire organized under the Virgin brand, are giving their backing to Gevo Inc., a Pasadena-based company seeking to transform biomass into butanol fuel on an industrial scale.

The participating parties declined to divulge the size or the terms of the investment. However, an analyst at Khosla Ventures called it "a significant sum." Executives from Khosla Ventures and Virgin Fuels will join Gevo's board of directors. ...