{"id":26128,"date":"2012-11-09T08:37:38","date_gmt":"2012-11-09T06:37:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=26128"},"modified":"2012-11-09T14:54:25","modified_gmt":"2012-11-09T12:54:25","slug":"google-ventures-allocated-300-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/internet\/26128\/google-ventures-allocated-300-million\/","title":{"rendered":"Google Ventures allocated $300 million"},"content":{"rendered":"

Google<\/a> will increase the cash it allocates to its venture-capital arm to up to $300 million a year from $200 million, catapulting Google Ventures<\/a> into the top echelon of corporate venture-capital funds.<\/p>\n

Access to that sizeable checkbook means Google Ventures will be able to invest in more later-stage financing rounds, which tend to be in the tens of millions of dollars or more per investor.<\/p>\n

It puts the firm on the same footing as more established corporate venture funds such as Intel<\/a>‘s Intel Capital, which typically invests $300-$500 million a year.<\/p>\n

“It puts a lot more wood behind the arrow if we need it,” said Bill Maris<\/a>, managing partner of Google Ventures.<\/p>\n

Part of the rationale behind the increase is that Google Ventures is a relatively young firm, founded in 2009. Some of the companies it backed two or three years ago are now at later stages, potentially requiring larger cash infusions to grow further.<\/p>\n

Google Ventures has taken an eclectic approach, investing in a broad spectrum of companies ranging from medicine to clean power to coupon companies.<\/p>\n

Every year, it typically funds 40-50 “seed-stage” deals where it invests $250,000 or less in a company, and perhaps around 15 deals where it invests up to $10 million, Maris said. It aims to complete one or two deals annually in the $20-$50 million range, Maris said.<\/p>\n

Lacking superstars<\/h3>\n

Some of its investments include Nest, a smart-thermostat company; Foundation Medicine, which applies genomic analysis to cancer care; Relay Rides, a carsharing service; and smart-grid company Silver Spring Networks. Last year, its portfolio company HomeAway raised $216 million in an initial public offering.<\/p>\n

Still, Google Ventures lacks superstar companies such as microblogging service Twitter or online bulletin-board company Pinterest. The firm’s recent hiring of high-profile entrepreneur Kevin Rose as a partner could help attract higher-profile deals.<\/p>\n

Soon it could have even more cash to play around with. “Larry has repeatedly asked me: ‘What do you think you could do with a billion a year?'” said Maris, referring to Google chief executive Larry Page<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Related articles<\/h3>\n

Is Google running out of steam?<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Google has 4 months to change privacy policy<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Google vs Apple a \u201cdefining fight\u201d<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Google\u2019s Motorola beats Microsoft in patent case<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Google warns of further restructuring at Motorola Mobility<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Google denied summary judgement in patent dispute<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Google will increase the cash it allocates to its venture-capital arm to up to $300 million a year from $200 million, catapulting Google Ventures into the top echelon of corporate venture-capital funds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":4778,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9882],"tags":[25,53,4569],"class_list":["post-26128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-internet","tag-active","tag-google","tag-google-ventures"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26128"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26128\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26185,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26128\/revisions\/26185"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}