Vinod Khosla lands in Hyderabad

Vinod Khosla, the co-founder of Sun Microsystems and Daisy Systems, will visit Hyderabad and Vijayawada on Friday.

The India-born Khosla was ranked as one of the richest Americans by the Forbes magazine for the last several years. The visit of the 49-year-old successful venture capitalist assumes significance as he is expected to invest in some of the city-based companies as well as meet Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu.

According to sources, Khosla arrived in the city on Thursday in his private jet from Bangladesh. He is expected to participate in a micro-credit programme in Vijayawada and participate in various functions at the Indian School of Business, IIIT and Satyam Computer Services.

He will also visit Dr Reddy's Laboratories. He will relaunch The indus Entrepreneurs' Hyderabad chapter on Friday evening and will also meet some of the prospective investors. He will leave for Bangalore on February 21 and will spend a couple of days there.

Khosla is presently a general partner in US-based venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Perkins cemented its reputation in the late 1990s, by backing internet pioneers such as Web browser Netscape and online retailer Amazon.

Khosla stood 357th in the Forbes' list of 400 richest Americans for the year 2003. He was the only person in the list with Indian origin. He co-founded Sun and retired after its IPO in 1986 at the age of 30, to join a venture capital firm.

He serves on the boards of Asera, Corio Inc, Corvis Corp, BigVine.com, Juniper Networks, Redback and QWEST Communications, in addition to several other private companies.

He holds a Bachelor of Technology in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in New Delhi, a Master's in Biomedical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.