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Who Google is Investing In

Posted by jonathan at 12:50pm EST on 05/12/2010

Google Ventures was launched a little over a year ago.

The goal? Do three primary things:

1. Seek out the most innovative and interesting entrepreneurs and companies we can find
2. Perform in-depth due diligence and invest in those we are most excited about
3. Do everything we can to help those companies succeed

So who has Google Ventures actually been investing in?

So we have a bio discovery company, a payment company, a translation service, an ad network, an interactive experience generator, a historical analysis company, a geo-gaming platform, a company that essentially exists to help others “go green,” another ad network, and a car company.

So what do all of these have in common? Google. And how they will be using Google to make their companies successful.

You don’t honestly think that Google would invest in these companies unless in some fashion, each company is going to end up integrating their service into Google or being straight bought by Google.

The bio discover company, Adimab, can go hand-in-hand with Anne Wojcicki company, 23andme. Anne Wojcicki happens to be the wife of Google’s co-founder Sergey Brin. Coincidence? I think not.

Corduro, offering a range of payment services for Internet, mobile, and traditional retail transactions, is no surprise that Google would invest. Google is definitely in the business of making money, transacting money, and making money float around the world.

English Central is again, not a surprise. Nearly everyone knows how successful Google Translation is and how widely used and adopted the product is. This is just another outlet for Google to explain through investment.

OpenCandy’s first product is an ad network. Everyone, even people that don’t use computers, know that advertising is Google’s bread and butter. So anything ad-related, Google wants a bite.

Pixazza is “a web service that converts static images into interactive content.” Alright, gotta hand it to them on this one, that sounds pretty cool. Where does Google fit in? Pretty much everywhere. Google is becoming more and more interactive everyday with each product release. This is a perfect fit.

Recorded Future is a historical analysis company that is going to definitely help Google with history. Google has a small grasp on history and how to analyze it, but Google is going to dive more and more into this space. Just imagine, Google is the new Amazon. If Google could tell you what you’re looking for before you even want to search for it, think about how powerful that could be — and creepy at the same time.

SCVNGR is a great addition to Google’s acquisition of AdScape back in 2007. Having a platform for Google to integrate it’s ad platform into is ideal. So again, a perfect fit.

Silver Spring Networks. A leading smart grid solutions provider for hardware, software, and services, to help reduce the carbon footprint. Google is all over this one. Just think about how many servers, datacenters, and vehicles Google have in production to make the company work the way it does. This is a no-brainer.

Viglink is an interesting investment. It helps ease the process and helps monetize “outbound links” effortlessly. A communication-business play for Google? Sure seems like it.

Lastly, V-Vehicle. Again, a no-brainer. Since Google took over their own mapping and with a huge push around Google Street View. Google needs a way to make those thousands of vehicles they own, run in a fuel-efficient, well-equipped manner. Maybe not a great investment, but something that Google views as a good investment.

This post is purely for poking at Google and it’s investments because Google always has an ulterior motive, even when they say they don’t. Google has no problem with lying to the public, they’ve made that clear.

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