Google has expanded its venture capital fund Google Ventures, which now has 16 employees and has made 10 investments totaling around $100 million. Google Ventures aims to invest about $100 million per year in Internet, advertising, biotech, and clean tech startups. While Google may benefit from strategic investments, Google executives said the fund is not intended as a way for Google to acquire companies but to support entrepreneurs and help startups with Google's expertise and network.

1. THIS is a test word 2007 Document<br />Google’s Venture Fund Steps Up the Pace<br />By CLAIRE CAIN MILLER<br />Google has been throwing money around the last few days. It bought a start-up called BumpTop, invested in wind farms and, on Monday, announced its tenth venture investment and some details about its year-old venture capital fund. <br />Google Ventures started in March 2009 with the goal of investing up to $100 million in young companies. Until today, Google has been fairly quiet about the fund’s activities. <br />Though it would not disclose how much it has invested, it said it has made 10 investments and aims to invest about $100 million a year. It will increase the amount of money it is investing and the pace of deals, and will expand beyond North America. <br />The investments have ranged from less than $500,000 to tens of millions of dollars. The latest is in Corduro, a Texas start-up that makes technology for Web, mobile and retail payments. <br />Many corporations, including Cisco, Intel and Disney, have venture arms. Most have a strategic goal to fund projects that might someday be useful to the company. But Google executives emphasized that the fund is not an incubator for companies that Google wants to someday buy. It invests in Internet and advertising companies, but also in biotech and clean tech. <br />“This is not a stalking horse for acquiring these companies,” said Eric Schmidt, Google’s chief executive. <br />The Google Ventures team has also expanded from three to 16 full-time people, and Google calls on all its employees to help, said Bill Maris, managing partner of Google Ventures. Much of the deal flow comes from Google employees who have friends who are starting companies. <br />“The majority of the deals we’ve done have either been from our personal networks or Googlers who have pointed out something to us, saying, ‘I have a friend,’” Mr. Maris said. <br />Google employees advise portfolio companies on building a start-up, introducing new products, reviewing code and other issues, Mr. Maris said. “I hope that dollars are the lowest-value thing we’re bringing to the table.” <br />For example, one of the Google Ventures partners, Braden Kowitz, who worked on design for Gmail and other Google products, helped Pixazza, an image advertising company that Google invested in, redesign its user interface. <br />The executives would not name particular themes they want to invest in, but Mr. Maris outlined a few very broad areas of interest. They include regenerative medicine, bioinformatics, cloud storage, companies that use large data sets, online monetization and mobile. <br />“It’s very important to avoid a short-term fad,” Mr. Schmidt said. The trick with venture capital, he said, is backing good people. <br />Google has moved far away from start-up land, and seems to view its venture fund as a way to keep a foothold there. <br />Of course, Google is also investing in part to make money, though Mr. Schmidt acknowledged that any profits would likely be a drop in the bucket. <br />Profits would be material if Google Ventures could invest in the next Google, he said, adding, “Let’s just review how many such events there were in the last decade and I’ll let you determine the probability of that.” <br />