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In addition to those funds, Kleiner Perkins-backed electric plug-in vehicle sportscar maker Fisker received a $528.7 million loan award from the U.S. Department of Energy. Amonix, another clean-energy-backed Kleiner Perkins enterprise, took advantage of a $5.9 million clean energy manufacturing tax credit to build an $18 million facility in Las Vegas.
Doerr and other Kleiner Perkins executives would not comment on how much in total funds Kleiner Perkins companies have received from ARRA, how many jobs were created or the impact on the overall U.S. economy.
Stanford University's Schweizer said Kleiner Perkins-backed clean energy ventures have an "extraordinarily high rate" of success winning government funds given that less than 10 percent of the all the companies applying receive assistance.
"In this particular case you have highly risky investments in this sector and he has benefited from the political connections that he has enjoyed," said Schweizer of Doerr's success in the green energy sector. "This is extraordinary. I don't really know of any other single investment house -- and there are many that invest in green technologies -- that has anything even remotely approaching the success record that he has had in securing access to government money."
Doerr is listed on the White House Visitor's log for three appointments: Oct. 8, 2009, March 24, 2010, and March 9, 2011. Doerr's wife, Ann, is listed on the White House visitor’s log for four appointments: three meetings on May 27, 2010, including a social innovation fund event and a meeting with the president on July 18, 2011.
Doerr, a Woodside, Calif., resident, ranked No. 301 on the Forbes list of the 400 richest people in the U.S. in 2008 with an estimated $1.6 billion net worth before Obama took office, according to Forbes magazine. By the 2012 Forbes survey, Doerr ranked No. 179 on the list with a net worth of $2.5 billion, according to the 2012 Forbes 400 list.
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