Google announced the launching of google ventures, google’s venture capital arm.
SAN FRANCISCO — Google, which has invested in many startups over the years, will announce on Tuesday that it is creating a venture capital arm whose main objective will be to turn a profit.
The group, called Google Ventures, is expected to invest up to $100 million over the next 12 months. It will be overseen by David Drummond, who will continue in his role as senior vice president of corporate developing and chief legal officer at Google. Investments will be vetted by William Maris, who joined Google about a year ago, and Rich Miner, a co-founder of Android, a mobile software startup that Google acquired in 2005.
Mr. Maris said in an interview that Google will tap the connections of its employees and its ties to the venture capital world to find promising startups in areas like the Internet, clean technology and life sciences.
“A lot of the things we have done in the energy area the kinds of things you might see from Google Ventures,” Mr. Drummond said. He said that Google’s corporate development arm will continue to make other investments.
Google Ventures has already made two investments: Silver Spring Networks, a company that makes technology to help manage electric grids, and Pixazza, which links online images with related products that can be purchased. Google declined to say how much it invested in those companies.
This is an interesting move by google in terms of its timing. These times are seen as bad for the VC industry. VC firms cash in when the companies they fund either get acquired or go public. Well, companies are not buying right now and you know about the stock market. But google has always been a contrarian. It will be interesting to see how they do in the venture business.