Google Ventures - News & Events

Google Ventures: Year one

noreply@blogger.com (Braden) — Mon, 03 May 2010 21:42:00 +0000

When we launched Google Ventures last March, we wanted to honor Google's entrepreneurial roots while tapping into the wealth of human and technical resources available at Google Inc. to build a unique venture fund. Rather than looking for investments that would simply be strategically useful to Google, we aim to invest in best-of-breed ventures in a wide variety of fields. Our fund's calling is to generate a financial return while supporting entrepreneurs who are creating transformative ventures. In doing so, we try to bring to bear Google's resources to support them in that mission.

The job is fairly straightforward: we want to find outstanding entrepreneurs and start-ups, perform thorough and careful due diligence with the help of the combined experience of more than 20,000 Googlers, and then do everything we can to help those companies grow and succeed. To do so, we're building a team of seasoned entrepreneurs, subject-matter experts and investors committed to this goal — above all else, we want to provide more than dollars to our investees. From product launches to code reviews, from help with communications to UI design and beyond — there are a lot of areas where Google's collective experience might be helpful to a start-up.

We recently revamped our website, where you can find out more about the people that make up the growing Google Ventures team as well as information on the 10 currently announced portfolio companies.

Google Ventures is an expression of our optimism in the future and the belief that looking for, supporting and fostering innovation is worthwhile. We don't know where the next great idea will come from, but with the help of many Googlers, great co-investors and a growing team, we're going to keep looking while working to help entrepreneurs succeed.

posted by Bill Maris, Managing Partner

Portfolio Company News: Welcome OpenCandy

noreply@blogger.com (Braden) — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 21:51:00 +0000

TechCrunch: OpenCandy Raises $5 Millions Series B for Bundled Software You Might Actually Want

Portfolio Company News: Pixazza

noreply@blogger.com (Braden) — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 21:56:00 +0000

NYT: Selling a Celebrity Look

Portfolio Company News: Welcome SCVNGR

noreply@blogger.com (Braden) — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 14:00:00 +0000

TechCrunch: SCVNGR Raises $4 Million From Google Ventures

Portfolio Company News: Welcome Adimab

noreply@blogger.com (Braden) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 23:00:00 +0000

Xconomy: Google Ventures Backs Adimab in Antibody Discovery Business

Portfolio Company News: Welcome EnglishCentral

noreply@blogger.com (Braden) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 21:59:00 +0000

Mass High Tech: Google Ventures, Atlas Back Language Start-Up, EnglishCentral

Portfolio Company News: Welcome VigLink

noreply@blogger.com (Braden) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 10:00:00 +0000

Mass High Tech: Stealthy VigLink Lands Google Ventures Fund

Select launch coverage

noreply@blogger.com (Braden) — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 05:14:00 +0000

NYT: Google to Announce Venture Fund
TechCrunch: Google Ventures Opens for Business, Investment Scope Covers Just About Anything
Businessweek: Google Forms Venture Group to Find “Next Big Thing”
CNBC: Google’s Next Big Thing
BBC: Google to Venture Into Start-Ups
Boston Globe: Google Launches Venture Capital Subsidiary

Portfolio Company News: Welcome Silver Spring Networks

noreply@blogger.com (Braden) — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 04:00:00 +0000

earth2tech: First for Google Ventures: Silver Spring’s Smart Grid

Google's newest venture

noreply@blogger.com (Braden) — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 16:00:00 +0000

Today we're excited to announce Google Ventures, Google's new venture capital fund. This is Google's effort to take advantage of our resources to support innovation and encourage promising new technology companies. By borrowing the best practices of top-tier, financially focused venture capital firms and bringing to bear Google's unique technical expertise and brand, we think we can find young companies with truly awesome potential and encourage their development into successful businesses.

At its core, Google Ventures is charged with finding and helping to develop exceptional start-ups. We'll be focusing on early stage investments across a diverse range of industries, including consumer Internet, software, clean-tech, bio-tech, health care and, no doubt, other areas we haven't thought of yet. Central to our effort will be our fellow Googlers, whom we view as a critically important resource to help educate us about potential investments areas and evaluate specific companies.

Economically, times are tough, but great ideas come when they will. If anything, we think the current downturn is an ideal time to invest in nascent companies that have the chance to be the "next big thing," and we'll be working hard to find them. If you think you have the next big idea, or if you just want to to learn more, please see our website at www.google.com/ventures.