Google Ventures

Google Ventures
Subsidiary
Industry Venture Capital
Founded 2009[1]
Founder Bill Maris
Headquarters Mountain View
San Francisco
New York City
Cambridge
London
Total assets $1.5 billion[2]
Parent Google Inc.
Website www.gv.com

Google Ventures is the venture capital investment arm of Google Inc. and provides seed, venture, and growth stage funding to technology companies. The firm operates independently from Google and makes financially driven investment decisions. Google Ventures seeks to invest in startup companies in a variety of fields ranging from Internet, software, and hardware to cleantech, biotech, and health care.[3]

The group was founded on March 31, 2009, with a $100 million capital commitment.[1] In 2012, that commitment was raised to $300 million annually, and the fund has $1.5 billion under management.[2][4] General partners include Bill Maris, Rich Miner,[5] Joe Kraus,[6][7] David Krane, Kevin Rose,[8] Karim Faris, Krishna Yeshwant, MG Siegler,[9] Andy Wheeler, and Blake Byers.[9]

In July 2014, the group launched a $100 million fund to invest in promising European start-ups.[10][11]

Google Ventures has offices in Mountain View, San Francisco, New York City, Cambridge and London.

Services model

Google Ventures was one of the first venture capital firms to employ the venture capital services model, providing portfolio companies with access to operational help after making a financial investment.[12] Full-time partners at Google Ventures work with portfolio companies on design and product management, marketing, engineering, and recruiting.[13] Partners working with companies include designers Daniel Burka,[14] Braden Kowitz,[15] and Jake Knapp,[16] marketing partners Laura Melahn[17] and Jodi Olson, product managers Rick Klau and Ken Norton, and top engineers from Google, including Graham Spencer[18] the co-founder of Jotspot and Excite and Erik Nordlander.

Google Ventures has developed an intensive five-day design process called a Design Sprint to help startups solve problems quickly.[19][20]

Exits

Investments

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.
Company Field Date
Pixazza[1][22] Advertising content in web-based pictures[1] March, 2009
Silver Spring Networks[1][22] Smart grid technology March, 2009
VigLink Inc.[22][23] Web link affiliation June, 2009
V-Vehicle[22][24] Green vehicles August, 2009
Adimab[22][25] Biotechnology October, 2009
EnglishCentral[22][26] English language learning October, 2009
Scvngr[22][27] Location-based gaming platform for mobile phones December, 2009
OpenCandy[22] Software advertising April, 2010
Recorded Future[22][28] Web trends May, 2010
Corduro[22] Payment services May, 2010
Miso[22] Social television May, 2010
Trada[22] Pay per click advertising July, 2010
iPierian[22] Biotechnology September, 2010
Miso Media[22] Music Education December, 2010
LawPivot[22] Online legal services January, 2011
Dasient[29] Internet security February, 2011
Nest Labs[30] Intelligent thermostat August, 2011
Rocket Lawyer[31] Internet legal services August, 2011
Clean Power Finance[32] Residential Solar Finance September, 2011
Yesware[33] Email plugin September, 2011
Enterproid[34] Enterprise mobility management October, 2011
Triptrotting[35] offering travelers local activities and hosts May, 2012
Rockbot (formerly Roqbot)[36] background music and jukebox app for businesses June, 2012
TuneIn[37] Internet Radio August, 2012
Vungle[38] In-app video advertising May, 2012
Smarterer[39] Skills assessment testing June, 2012
Mitro[40] Password sharing September, 2012
DocuSign[41] digital signatures in electronic documents September, 2012
Rally.org[42] Fundraising September, 2012
Clever[43] Education October, 2012
Shape Security[44] Network security January, 2013
Ripple Labs[45] Digital payment system, currency exchange and remittance network May, 2013
Airware[46] Unmanned Aerial Systems May, 2013
Disruptor Beam[47] Social/mobile Games June, 2013
Uber (company)[48] Vehicles for hire September, 2013
mParticle (company)[49] Mobile app data automation October, 2013
Yieldmo[50] Mobile advertising December, 2013
Airseed[51] Consumer intelligence developer platform February, 2014
Namo Media Advertising content for mobile applications March, 2014[52]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Schonfeld, Erick (2009-04-04). "The Google Ventures Cheat Sheet". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2009-04-15.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Google Ventures: A Closely-Watched Wildcard". The Information.
  3. ↑ "Google Ventures". Google Inc. Retrieved 2009-04-06. |first1= missing |last1= in Authors list (help)
  4. ↑ "Exclusive: Google Ventures beefs up fund size to $300 million a year". Reuters.
  5. ↑ Oreskovic, Alexei (2009-03-31). "Google forms $100 million venture fund". Reuters UK. Retrieved 2009-04-06.
  6. ↑ "Silicon Valley Entrepreneur (and Google Exec) Joe Kraus Moves to Google Ventures". 2009-11-03. Retrieved 2010-03-31.
  7. ↑ "DEMO Mobile Panel Speakers". Retrieved 2009-03-22.
  8. ↑ "What’s next for Kevin Rose? How about Google Ventures partner". Retrieved 2012-07-05.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 "Google Ventures Announces Its Newest General Partner, MG Siegler".
  10. ↑ "Google Venture starts $100 mn fund for European startups". Europe Sun. Retrieved 10 July 2014.
  11. ↑ "Google Ventures invests in Europe".
  12. ↑ "Will Google disrupt venture capital?". Fortune.
  13. ↑ Manjoo, Farhad. "Google's Creative Destruction". Fast Company.
  14. ↑ "Kevin Rose’s Milk Co-Founder Daniel Burka Joins Google Ventures As Design Partner". TechCrunch.
  15. ↑ "Interviewing Braden Kowitz of Google Ventures". FailCon.
  16. ↑ Knapp, Jake. "From Google Ventures, The 6 Ingredients You Need To Run A Design Sprint". FastCo.Design.
  17. ↑ "Google Ventures Expands Portfolio and Team". Brand Channel.
  18. ↑ "Google Ventures’ Entire Investment Team Finally Revealed". The Wall Street Journal.
  19. ↑ "How Google Ventures does rapid prototyping ‘design sprints’ with its 170 startups". VentureBeat.
  20. ↑ "Inside A Google Ventures Design Sprint". TechCrunch.
  21. ↑ http://news.bms.com/press-release/partnering-news/bristol-myers-squibb-acquires-ipierian-inc
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 22.3 22.4 22.5 22.6 22.7 22.8 22.9 22.10 22.11 22.12 22.13 22.14 "Google Ventures – Portfolio". Google Ventures. Retrieved 20 September 2010.
  23. ↑ Bigelow, Bruce V. (5 August 2009). "Google Ventures Emerges as Investor in San Diego’s V-Vehicle Co.". Xconomy, Inc. Retrieved 20 September 2010.
  24. ↑ Pollack, Andrew (2009-10-01). "Google’s Venture Arm Invests in Biotech Start-Up". The New York Times (The New York Times Company). Retrieved 2009-10-18.
  25. ↑ Moore, Galen (2009-10-01). "Google Ventures, Atlas back language startup EnglishCentral". Mass High Tech. American City Business Journals, Inc. Retrieved 2009-10-18.
  26. ↑ Kincaid, Jason (24 December 2009). "SCVNGR Raises $4 Million From Google Ventures". TechCrunch. Retrieved 20 September 2010.
  27. ↑ Mastrull, Amanda (2010-05-04). "Google invests in company, Recorded Future, that tries to predict the future". The New York Times (The New York Times Company). Retrieved 2010-05-04.
  28. ↑ "Google Ventures Invests In Web Security Company Dasient".
  29. ↑ . CrunchBase. August 11, 2011.
  30. ↑ Rao, Leena. August Capital, Google Ventures Put $18.5M In Online Legal Service Rocket Lawyer. TechCrunch. August 11, 2011.
  31. ↑ "Clean Power Finance connects investors, solar providers and gets $75M from Google".
  32. ↑ >Rao, Leena (September 27, 2011). "Google Ventures, Foundry Group Put $1M In Yesware, Email Tracking And Productivity Platform For Salespeople". TechCrunch.
  33. ↑ Rao, Leena. Enterprise Mobile Computing Platform Enterproid Raises $11M From Google Ventures, Comcast And Qualcomm. TechCrunch. October 6, 2011.
  34. ↑ Travel: The #1 Place To Go In 2012. Forbes. July 16, 2012
  35. ↑ Roqbot Raises $1.2M From Google Ventures & More To Turn Your Smartphone Into A Social Jukebox. "TechCrunch. June 12, 2012
  36. ↑ TuneIn grabs $16M from General Catalyst, Google Ventures, others to dominate radio apps | VentureBeat | Deals | by Sean Ludwig. VentureBeat. Retrieved on 2013-11-29.
  37. ↑ Vungle Raises $2 Million for Mobile Developers to Promote Apps Through Video Trailers. MarketWatch. May 2, 2012.
  38. ↑ . TechCrunch. June 5, 2012.
  39. ↑ Cutler, Kim-Mai (Sep 5, 2013). "Get Your Friends, Co-Workers Out Of "Password Remembering Hell" With Matrix-Backed Mitro". TechCrunch.
  40. ↑ DocuSign $8 Million for digitale signaturen in elektronischen dokumenten. DocuSign.
  41. ↑ Excited to announce my first +Google Ventures investment, rally.org!< Kevin Rose
  42. ↑ Twilio For Education Data, Clever, Lands $3M From Kevin Rose, Mike Maples & Ashton Kutcher, Now In 2K Schools
  43. ↑ Disruptive Web Security Startup Shape Security Nabs $20M From Venrock, Google Ventures, Kleiner, Eric Schmidt
  44. ↑ Google Ventures invests in OpenCoin, the firm behind Bitcoin exchange Ripple
  45. ↑ Gerone, Tomio (May 15, 2013). "Drone Startup Airware Lands $10.7 Million Series A Led By Andreessen Horowitz". Forbes.
  46. ↑ Alspach, Kyle (June 18, 2013). "Disruptor Beam gets Google Ventures funding to expand 'Game of Thrones Ascent'". Boston Business Journal.
  47. ↑ Rao, Leena (September 3, 2013). "After $258M Google Ventures And TPG Investment, Uber Hires Finance, Business, And Growth Execs". TechCrunch.
  48. ↑ Swisher, Kara (October 15, 2013). "Former Yahoo Ad Exec Michael Katz Gets $3M for Mobile Data Startup". AllThingsD.
  49. ↑ Ingram, Mathew (December 6, 2013). "Google may own online ads but it still needs to figure out mobile, and it’s betting Yieldmo can help". Gigaom.
  50. ↑ "Airseed - About the Team". Airseed.
  51. ↑ Peterson, Tim (18 March 2013). "Google Ventures Leads $1.875 Million Funding Round in Native Mobile Ad Startup Namo Media to Focus on in-feed in-app ads". Ad Week. Retrieved 3 March 2014.

External links