Google finally announced the formation of a new venture arm called Google Ventures. It is where all smaller-scale venture investments from Google will now originate.
A $100 million fund (that is the amount of capital allocated over the next 12 months). “We don’t have to invest $100 million this year,” notes fund co-manager Bill Maris, “it is what we want to do.”
“It will focus on seed and early stage startups across any industry, but “won’t invest in a company that we don’t think we can properly vet and understand,” says Rich Miner.
The first two portfolio investments are Pixazza (”AdSense for images”) and Silver Spring Networks (smart grid technology). The sole limited partner is Google. All venture investing from the company will now be done through Google Ventures (for instance, Google.org will no longer be making venture investments)
Photo by Google Ventures.