Google Ventures Bets $100 Million on New London Fund

Shirley Li

Google Ventures will open a $100 million tech startup investment fund in London "to help support the next generation of European entrepreneurs," the company announced today in a blog post by Bill Maris, Google Ventures' managing partner:

"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...We believe 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.

The announcement follows months of rumors pointing to Mountain View's interest in pursuing a London office. 

Four general partners, according to Bloomberg, will run the division: Peter Read and Tom Hulme, angel investors; Eze Vidra, head of Google Campus London; and Avid Larizadeh, the entrepreneur behind Code.org, a computer science education group. Despite earlier reports of MG Siegler joining the team, the Google Ventures general partner in the U.S. tweeted he will only be on loan to help with the new office:

This isn't the tech giant's first foray into Europe, having already established offices in 21 European countries, along with a Google Campus in London that acts as an incubator for startups looking for mentoring. The company also unveiled plans last month to open a similar space in Warsaw. 

This article was originally published at http://www.thewire.com/technology/2014/07/google-ventures-bets-100-million-on-new-london-fund/374211/

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