Google Ventures Sets Up $100M Fund for Euro Businesses
Cloud innovation in Europe helps set the trends for the rest of the world. Innovations such as SoundCloud, Spotify and many other cloud based companies have been born on European soil.
It was recently reported on the EU’s Great Firewall ambitions, which set forth stringent regulations for operating internet services inside the EU. Combined with the appetite for entrepreneurship within this region and the new framework which may discourage US vendors from competing in certain areas, the concept of Google Ventures in Europe has born.
Bill Maris, a managing partner at Google Ventures took note of Europe’s appetite for entrepreneurship. Maris mentioned that cities such as Dublin, Copenhagen, London and Berlin were ripe for technology investments from Google. “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,” says Maris. On Google Ventures’ blog, Maris also commented that “European startups will be essential to this future, and we can’t wait to see what they create.” Much has been written about the startup culture within these specific cities and Google Ventures in Europe seems to be the right fit for many of the startups being founded in Europe.
The initial funding of $100M will help jump start these hotbeds of innovation which could create an incubation effect that would have a net positive on the EU economy. For entrepreneurs, these conditions are quite ideal for innovation. Google Ventures first started investing in startups in 2009. Google Ventures has investments in over 250 startups such as Cloudera and MapR. The Google Venture blog notes that Google gives its investments much more than just money; startups receive engineering support, design expertise, and guidance with recruiting, marketing and product management. If you have a European startup and you are seeking the backing of Google, your journey would start at the Google Ventures website.
