Google's $100M venture arm looking for biotech partners

Google is launching a new venture arm to back companies developing interesting new technology--and biotechnology ventures are on its list of target investments.

Over the next year Google Ventures plans to shell out about $100 million in key industries and a range of geographic areas around the U.S. It is based in Cambridge, MA and Mountain View, CA and Bill Maris, who has a background in biotechnology, is one of the principals who will be scouting the talent.

In a blog post, the managing partners wrote that the venture arm will bring "to bear Google's unique technical expertise and brand" to "find young companies with truly awesome potential and encourage their development into successful businesses."

"If we find an interesting therapeutics company, we'd be happy to put down a term sheet," Maris told the Boston Globe. Of course, biotech is just one of several areas Google will focus on. Mobile computing, medical records and personal genomics are all at the top of the list.

- here the Boston Globe story
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read the story in the Wall Street Journal