Spelling bee: Here’s how Google is reorganizing its properties under Alphabet
With the announcement that Google has completely reorganized its entire business under a new parent company called Alphabet, there are still many questions floating around about what products belong with what companies now.
Thanks to Google’s SEC filing, we’ve got some answers on that front.
Google Capital leads $100M investment to fund growth by Crowdstrike cybersecurity company
Google Capital has led a $100M investment in Crowdstrike, a cybersecurity company with strong government ties, reports the WSJ. Supporting investors include Rackspace, Accel and Warburg Pincus.
Its head of investigations, Shawn Henry, is the former top computer-crimes official at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Crowdstrike’s D.C.-based chief technology officer, Dmitri Alperovitch, has a long history of calling out foreign hacker groups.
Crowdstrike offers a remote monitoring service for its clients’ networks, aiming to detect hacking attempts at an early stage. Where hackers have already penetrated, the company works to identify the group responsible.
Google Capital was formed last year to provide funding for successful companies looking for growth. It sits alongside Google Ventures, which provides early-stage funding for startups. Google Capital partner Gene Frantz said that they were “blown away” by the company tripling its billings year-on-year.
“We were blown away by CrowdStrike’s incredible growth and impressive customer adoption,” said Gene Frantz, partner at Google Capital. “They have a truly unique SaaS-based endpoint security model, a highly scalable subscription revenue model, and a visionary technical approach that has huge potential to transform the industry, which is why we’re thrilled to make this investment.”
Google officially launches Google Capital equity fund for growth-stage investments
After first announcing its new equity fund for growth-stage companies, Google is officially launching its “Google Capital” today with an announcement on its blog. Google says the fund will “focus on emerging, long-term technology trends” and the companies it’s invested in so far range from companies in the education space to personal loans and a survey platform. Google took some time to explain how Google Capital will differ from its Google Ventures investment arm:
Like our colleagues at Google Ventures, our goal is to invest in the most promising companies of tomorrow, with one important difference. While Google Ventures focuses mainly on early-stage investments, we’ll be looking to invest in companies solely as they hit their growth phase. That means finding companies that have already built a solid foundation and are really ready to expand their business in big ways. We’ll look across a range of industries for companies with new technologies and proven track records in their fields.
Google notes that the fund has already invested in a few companies including SurveyMonkey and Lending Club, as well as Renaissance Learning, which Bloomberg reports Google is putting around $40 million into.
Expand
Expanding
Close