Search Concepts

Google has officially rolled out their new $100 million dollar venture fund. Google’s Rich Miner said “Just as we were founded by entrepreneurs, we think we can help some of those next entrepreneurs with the next great idea.” Rich Miner and Bill Maris will be heading up the fund as managing partners.

The fund will be geared towards early-stage companies seeking seed founding. The fund’s investments will range from $10,000+ to $10,000,000+. Google states that they will also work with companies that have already received some funding from venture capital companies.

The new fund provides Google with a centralized funding group for smaller investments. Larger investments will still be managed by David Lawee from Google’s corporate development group. Prior, Google has invested in companies from several different departments including the Google.org group. The $100 million is earmarked for expenditure over the next 12-months. Most agree that relatively speaking a $100 million fund is relatively small. At any time Google corporate may choose to increase the fund budget.

So far the Google fund has seeded two companies which include Pixazza (”AdSense for images”) and Silver Spring Networks (smart grid technology).

Google may acquire companies via Google Ventures, but at this time it seems that the primary intent is to focus on seed investments.