Khosla Ventures Teams with RiceHadleyGates LLC for Strategic Insight

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Team to Help Khosla’s Portfolio Startups Build Lasting Companies

MENLO PARK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Khosla Ventures, a venture assistance firm that focuses on sustainability and information technology startups, today announced a strategic relationship with RiceHadleyGates LLC. Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her business partners will bring global and domestic insight to Khosla’s portfolio companies, helping them achieve their strategic goals in industries such as technology, energy, security and healthcare.

“The RiceHadleyGates team brings vast experience and unique insight to the table, which will extend and elevate our venture assistance model by directly contributing to the operational and strategic success of our portfolio companies.”

“RiceHadleyGates shares Khosla Ventures’ vision and passion for helping the next generation of entrepreneurs change the world for the better,” said Condoleezza Rice. “We look forward to putting our network and experience to good use by helping the Khosla companies navigate the tricky waters of political, policy, and regulatory issues around the world.”

In addition to Rice, RiceHadleyGates’ other principals include former National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley, former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, and former State Department official Anja Manuel. They will provide strategic and political context to help Khosla’s portfolio companies make critical business decisions around expanding to markets like China, India and Brazil.

“Khosla Ventures continues to be dedicated to building lasting companies, with strong leaders and new technologies that have the potential to disrupt markets,” said Vinod Khosla, founding partner of Khosla Ventures. “The RiceHadleyGates team brings vast experience and unique insight to the table, which will extend and elevate our venture assistance model by directly contributing to the operational and strategic success of our portfolio companies.”

About RiceHadleyGates LLC

RiceHadleyGates LLC is an international strategic consulting firm based in Silicon Valley and Washington, DC. The firm works with senior executives of major companies – many of them in the technology sector – to help them expand in major emerging markets and handle the national security and public policy challenges of offering globally technologically sophisticated products and services.

About Khosla Ventures

Khosla Ventures offers venture assistance, strategic advice and capital to entrepreneurs. The firm helps entrepreneurs extend the potential of their ideas in breakthrough technologies in clean energy, mobile, IT, cloud, big data, storage, health, food, agriculture and semiconductors. Vinod Khosla founded the firm in 2004 and was formerly a General Partner at Kleiner Perkins and co-founder of Sun Microsystems. Khosla Ventures is based in Menlo Park, Calif. More information is available at http://www.khoslaventures.com.