Mountain View,
Calif. – Google’s (NASD: GOOG) venture capital
arm plans to tap the knowledge of the company’s employees to source potential
firms to invest in, the company said in a blog post. Google Ventures made nine
investments in 2009, and plans to invest $100 million annually in start-up companies.
"What we have found, is that Googlers know a lot of people and the
employee and knowledge base we can tap are literally thousands of people,"
Google CEO Eric Schmidt told reporters at a briefing on Monday, according to
Wired.com’s coverage.
"The average VC firm doesn’t have access to that
knowledge. So, in theory, that gives us a competitive advantage."
Google
Ventures will invest in companies in a wide variety of fields, and not just
ones that would be strategically useful to Google, with the goal of
"generat[ing] a financial return while supporting entrepreneurs who are
creating transformative ventures," Bill Marris, managing partner of Google
Ventures, wrote in a blog post.
Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/vzkpd
(Google blog post)
