Alphabet's VC unit has backed an Irish genomics startup

GV, the venture capital firm that sits under Google parent company Alphabet, made another European startup investment this week.

The investment, announced on Wednesday, was in a genetic research company called Genomics Medicine Ireland (GMI), which is based in Dublin and was led by Tom Hulme, a GV partner in London.

The round came in at $40 million (£33 million) and the company intends to use the funds to help it hire an additional 150 people and build a new research and development centre.

Other investors in the round included Venture Partners, Polaris Partners, and the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund.

Founded last year by a group of life science entrepreneurs, investors and researchers, GMI is creating a scientific platform to examine the human genome in order to better understand the role of genetics in disease and rare conditions. They hope the platform will help scientists to come up with disease prevention strategies and treatments.

The company said it expects to announce its first collaboration with an Irish hospital in the coming weeks, adding that it is actively engaged in talks with a number of clinical collaborators nationwide.

Daniel Crowley, acting CEO of GMI, said in a statement: "We look forward to working closely with the Irish healthcare system to develop better diagnostics and new means to optimise health and patient outcomes. The size and characteristics of the Irish population can powerfully advance scientific discovery as researchers are able to pinpoint variations in DNA relevant to disease and useful for improving medicine."

GV has recently backed a number of healthcare businesses around the world, highlighting how it expects some of the companies operating in the space to grow considerably over the next few years.

GV in Europe

GV announced a dedicated $125 million (£86 million) fund for European technology startups in July 2014 only to fold it back into the global fund after making less than 10 investments over a period that lasted less than two years. The overall Google Ventures fund now stands at $475 million (£332 million) globally.

GV had five partners in Europe when it announced "Google Ventures Europe" but today there are only two left: Hulme and Avid Larizadeh.

"The strategy hasn't changed," Larizadeh told Business Insider earlier this year."What changed was we just pulled the money together. When we initially started, we were investing on the same strategy as the US was, but in Europe. So stage-agnostic, mostly starting with series A and then B, C, D. And looking across technology. So whether it's containers, robotics, AI, consumer, enterprise, and life sciences as well. That hasn't changed in any way shape or form. We merged."

Larizadeh added: "We went from $300 million (£205 million) [in the US] and $125 million (£85 million) [in Europe] to $425 million (£290 million) globally."