Google Ventures changes its investment strategy and closes the European fund

The European division of the Google Ventures investment fund opened in London in July 2014. Its initial volume was $ 100 million. But now the management of the fund has decided to terminate the work of the unit as a regional fund.

The president and CEO of Google Ventures, Bill Maris, explained this by saying that the foundation still decided to rely on flexibility. By collecting all investment assets in a single, global fund, Google will be able to invest in any project - regardless of its location. In addition, the restriction on the volume of investments, which usually takes place within the framework of regional investment funds, is lifted.

Source: Re / code
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According to TechCrunch, Maris also noted that the changes are mainly of an organizational nature, and besides this, nothing will change in the work of the London team.

During its existence (since 2009), Google Ventures has made more than 300 large investments. The European division managed to invest only in six projects.

Two London startups have received investments from the European division of Google Ventures. The marketing company Yieldify raised $ 11.5 million from investors led by Google Ventures and the Japanese corporation Soft Bank . Startup Lost my name received $ 9 million. It was also invested by a venture company from Silicon Valley, Greycroft Partners , a media company from Los Angeles, the Chernin Group , and the US bank Allen & Co.

After the launch, the fund invested in two companies. Kobalt music technology company helps songwriters to receive payments from streaming services. The second in turn was a joint venture of Oxford Sciences Innovation University and technology company Isis Innovation . Then the fund stopped making investments. Investments in Yieldify and Lost my name were the first after a long break.

Prior to the opening of the European division, Google invested in startups from Silicon Valley. So, the company invested in Nest , which it later bought out completely. And in Uber , for example, about $ 258 million was invested.

Following the results of 2015, the main investment directions for Google Venture were projects in the field of biotechnology and health care. The share of such projects was 31%. The fund plans to invest about $ 1 billion in these areas over several years.

The share of investments in start-ups from the service sector was 24%, developers of corporate platforms received 23%, and projects from the field of artificial intelligence got only 13% of the fund's investments.