With the aim to help support the next generation of European entrepreneurs, Google Ventures is launching a new venture fund, with initial funding of $100m. “Our goal is simple: we want to invest in the best ideas from the best European entrepreneurs, and help them bring those ideas to life,” it says.
“When we launched Google Ventures in 2009, we set out to be a very different type of venture fund. Startups need more than just capital to succeed: they also benefit from engineering support, design expertise, and guidance with recruiting, marketing and product management. Five years later, we’re working with more than 250 portfolio companies, tackling challenges across a host of industries.” says Bill Maris, Managing Partner, Google Ventures.
Google believes that Europe’s startup scene has enormous potential: “We’ve seen compelling new companies emerge from places like London, Paris, Berlin, the Nordic region and beyond—SoundCloud, Spotify, Supercell and many others.”
This may be seen as a cheap way to acquire ideas, however. Professor Stephen Roper, researcher and director of the Warwick Enterprise Research Centre says: “Google’s announcement of the creation of a European venture capital fund is another welcome signal of confidence in the European high-tech industry. Google is rather late into this arena, however, with companies such as Intel Capital already having a well–established portfolio of European tech investments. Perhaps more valuable than the investment to Europe’s high-tech starts, however, will be the potential relationship with Google itself, its technologies and market position.
“European high-tech firms have often looked enviously at the supply of risk capital available across the Atlantic. The arrival of Google Ventures in Europe takes us some way to redressing the lack of risk capital in Europe. As to whether Google are on a technology shopping spree or have a real interest in building Europe’s next generation of high-tech gazelles only time will tell.”