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Google Flexes Investment Muscle
By John Vinson
Expert Author
Article Date: 2010-01-13
Good business has never been made sitting still, and Google looks ready to take that lesson to heart. Google Ventures (GV), the investment portion of the company is looking to expand. As it stands now, $100 million is representative of what Google is willing to invest. Google Ventures started back in March 2009, and so far there have been seven disclosed investments, with an eighth reportedly in the works.
Lately, Google Venture has been hiring looking to refine their investment strategy. So far they've diversified really well, putting money in a wide variety of markets. Bill Maris, managing partner of GV discussed the hiring process, "There are full-time employees in the fund that aren't publicly disclosed right now that are recent hires." He continues, "As the team gets bigger I think we're able to look at a broader and broader group of companies."
The latest investment from Google Ventures was announced today, and is a San Francisco start-up company called VigLink. They've received investment capital from a wide variety of sources, all totaling around $800,000. Google Venture's investment was made back in June, but has just now come to light.
Knowing the news, you might be curious as to what VigLink produces. They've designed and released a tool which allows website owners a way to use content as a connection for affiliate programs on sites such as Amazon.
It hasn't been announced how much money of the $100 million has been invested thus far, only that eight investments have been made since it's creation.
Maris spoke of the future concerning Google Ventures, "Looking at the opportunity we have to invest in 2010, we just think that it will be useful to have additional partners on the team." He concludes, "We're coming out of a period of serious economic downturn, that's always a great time for creativity to flourish and innovation to flourish and people to start investing."
Google Ventures is a proposition that certainly is exciting. I think we can all learn a lesson from Google in this regard. That stymieing ourselves to one particular investment rarely provides good fortune. This of course can be an arduous undertaking, many times having a lack of resources as a roadblock. It will be interesting to keep an eye on GV in the future, to see where their future investments lead.
About the Author:
John is a staff writer for WebProNews.
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