Google Will Open a $100 Million Venture Capital Fund In London

Google Ventures will open a $100 million tech startup investment fund in London, the company announced on its blog. Google believes that Europe may be as interesting as Northern California when it comes to entrepreneurs and innovation:

We believe Europe's startup scene has enormous potential. We've seen compelling new companies emerge from places like London, Paris, Berlin, the Nordic region and beyond-SoundCloud, Spotify, Supercell and many others.

The Financial Times points out that Google's new fund is modest in size compared to some competitors. $100 million after all is only £58 million or €73 million:

In June, Index Ventures launched a €400m fund dedicated to early-stage technology companies in Europe. In 2013, the London offices of Accel Partners unveiled a similar fund worth $475m.

Here are the people in charge:

• General partner Eze Vidra, from Google's Campus London startup accelerator.
• General partner Tom Hulme, a serial entrepreneur.
• General partner Peter Read, an angel investor.
• General Partner Avid Larizadeh, co-founder of Bottica.com.

Blogger/VC MG Siegler will move temporarily to London to advise the new outfit.

The new office will be in Clerkenwell, a short distance from the Old Street "Silicon Roundabout" area that has become a tech hub in the city.