New York — In a dwindling economy that has seen IPOs disappear, search titan Google, which has funded many innovative start-ups over the years, is venturing out for “the next big thing” in technology as it announces its latest effort, Google Ventures.
The new venture capitalist arm, announced Tuesday, whose main goal will be to turn a profit, pledges to help find and develop “exceptional start-ups,” offering early stage investments to a range of new firms. Areas it will look at include consumer Internet, software, clean tech, bio-tech and health-care.
The group, called Google Ventures, is anticipating to invest up to $100 million over the next 12 months. The fund, which was revealed late Monday on a company blog, will be headed by William Maris, an investor and entrepreneur who was hired by Google last year to help set up the venture, and Rich Miner, a co-founder of Android, a mobile software startup that Google acquired in 2005.
It will be supervised by David Drummond, who will carry on in his role as senior vice president of corporate developing and chief legal officer at Google.
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.
“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,” Maris and Miner said in the jointly penned blog.
Recently, many other companies have launched venture capital units. But those groups typically have dual missions of profiting from investments and advancing their parent company’s strategic goals, and their track record has been mixed.
The venture unit comes as Google is rethinking the mission of Google.org, its corporate philanthropy, which has invested in areas like clean energy. Some of those investments will now be made by the venture unit.
“A lot of the things we have done in the energy area the kinds of things you might see from Google Ventures,” 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.
Although Google has declined to say how much money it plans to commit to the venture although the Wall Street Journal is reporting that it could be around $100m (£70m) over the next 12 months.
Google acknowledged that its timing is awkward, but noted that it also sees opportunity in the current economic climate.
“Economically, times are tough, but great ideas come when they will,” the pair said. “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 will be working hard to find them.”
Miner is based at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., while Maris is based in Boston.