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Google helps European startups

July 10, 2014

US Internet giant Google has announced it's providing a special fund to support promising startups across Europe. The company said it wanted to invest in some of the continent's brightest minds.

https://p.dw.com/p/1CaQc
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Image: picture-alliance/dpa

Silicon Valley-based Google announced Thursday it wanted to boost its investment in European entrepreneurs.

The company reported it was in the process of putting an initial $100 million (73.5 million euros) into a special fund in support of European startups.

The Internet titan said it was setting up a separate Google Ventures office to this end.

No selfish investment strategy?

"Our goal is simple," Google Ventures managing partner Bill Maris said in a blog post. "We want to invest in the best ideas from the best European entrepreneurs and help them bring those ideas to life."

Google indicated that its subsidiary would in most cases act independently of the parent company's immediate business interests and would aim to be a neutral investor.

Start Up Berlin - City of Ideas II

Google Ventures was launched in the US five years ago and had since blended cash backing with access to the tech firm's engineering and marketing capabilities.

The subsidiary has a portfolio of more than 250 startups in areas as diverse as health care and solar energy.

hg/msh (AFP, dpa)