Factory
Factory Berlin's Mitte office.
Factory, founded in 2011 by CEO Udo Schloeme, received €1 million (£730,000) from Google in 2012, which was to be invested over a three year period. Now the three years is up, and the money presumably spent, Google is renewing its partnership with Factory and investing additional funds.
The Mountain View internet giant did not disclose how much it is investing in Factory but Business Insider understands that the amount is similar to that invested in 2012. The funding comes less than two months after Factory received €1 million (£730,000) from Facebook investor Klaus Hommels, who now sits on the board.
The Google funding will be used to host a number of community events and provide certain Factory members with access to selected product credits for Google services, including the Google Cloud Platform.
In a statement, Jens Redmer, principal of new products at Google, described Factory as "a community of exciting innovators from the new and old economy," adding that 2016 should be an "exciting year."
Redmer added: "We'll start a mentorship programme from Google, similar to what we are running at [Google] Campus London. We are happy to prolong our commitment and look forward to supporting the Berlin startup ecosystem in the coming year."
Factory is now home to 800 residents including music streaming service SoundCloud, customer service provider ZenDesk, as well as several larger international firms that want to tap into Berlin's tech scene, which is home to a mix of hackers, privacy experts, scientists, and video companies.
The innovation space is an official "Google for Entrepreneurs Tech Hub Partner" and therefore a base for the outreach of Google to the Berlin startup scene. The Google for Entrepreneurs network includes 25 innovation spaces worldwide.