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September 12, 2007

Google To Invest $10 Million In Green Startups

Michael Arrington

27 comments »

Google will be investing up to $10 million in “green” startups, the company said today. Specifically, they are looking to invest $500k - $2 million in multiple for-profit startups that are focusing on electric/hybrid transportation. Details are here.

But startups don’t have much time to fine tune their pitches - proposals requesting funding must be submitted to Google by October 22 2007.

This inches Google ahead in the race with Yahoo and other tech companies to show who cares most about the environment.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 12th, 2007 at 8:34 am and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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  1. BeingParents

    September 12th, 2007 at 9:43 am

    I hope other IT companies follow.Everyone is responsible especially those with deep pockets. It will will also be interesting to see some the green tech ideas and products that will emerge.

    If we can’t take of the Earth today.Then we are DOOMED.

  2. Michael Arrington

    September 12th, 2007 at 9:47 am

    yep. we’re all gonna die unless we figure out this electric car thing.

  3. Dennis

    September 12th, 2007 at 10:05 am

    Sensing some sarcasm.

  4. David Litsky

    September 12th, 2007 at 10:14 am

    With social networks and second life, who needs IRL P2P interaction.

  5. barabum

    September 12th, 2007 at 10:20 am

    10 Million from Google? Proportionally, this is like me buying the paper in the morning. More a PR thing than really “caring”.

  6. Markus in a Van

    September 12th, 2007 at 10:25 am

    I can’t believe we still don’t have any electric vans for flip’s sake. That would really help me out here.

    I am willing to be the test pilot for any electric van that anyone wants to engineer, fo reals. C’mon science, get with it.

  7. Rob Walters

    September 12th, 2007 at 10:34 am

    It is all PR Window Dressing. Like barabum said “like me buying the paper in the morning”.

  8. Allen Stern

    September 12th, 2007 at 11:03 am

    but it’s ok to have a 767 jumbo?

  9. Fabian Schonholz

    September 12th, 2007 at 11:09 am

    Guys … the electric car and using renewable resources is all good and dandy… but … what are we going to do about plastic? Plastic, which has gotten no press is worse an issue than fuel. Look around you. EVERYTHING uses plastic.

  10. Dan Purell

    September 12th, 2007 at 11:44 am

    WOW - 10 million whole dollars… WOW, they are really doing their part. God bless their generosity.

  11. Superfly

    September 12th, 2007 at 11:52 am

    While not earth changing, what this might do is get an early stage tech like an electric motorcycle prototype actually developed by some dude in his garage who actually needs $500k in parts to development, and then get the attention of some big auto maker to actually buy the prototype (maybe the genius behind it too) and actually start mass producing the thing. Either that or bury it altogether! No conspiracies here :)

  12. Adwatch

    September 12th, 2007 at 11:57 am

    What’s next? Max Havelaar textlinks? Fairtrade banners? Dig all the way down dear Google and start by turning you background into black. That will save much more. Hypocrats, really!

  13. Social responsibility

    September 12th, 2007 at 12:06 pm

    I wish this headline would read “$100 million”!

  14. Gecko

    September 12th, 2007 at 12:20 pm

    A company like Google getting onboard with this will really help the movement. They have already proven that they can move fast and keep up in a world filled with slow to act corporations.
    This could be a good thing. And it’s a smart business move because green is a fad as well as being good.

  15. Anatoly

    September 12th, 2007 at 12:35 pm

    Maybe its just me, but I believe the better investment is in space travel and terraforming. Then we can just use up planets, and move onto other ones…
    ;)

    On a more serious note, Google work on more energy efficient computers (http://www.climatesaverscomputing.org/) seems more relevant than something outside of their core competence.

  16. ahatter

    September 12th, 2007 at 12:37 pm

    TESLA, baby, woo!

  17. Don Jones

    September 12th, 2007 at 12:58 pm

    Why doesn’t Google just create a venture capital arm, GooVP, and invest across all kinds of do-Good concepts as a way of dealing with all the bad press they’re getting…

  18. jon

    September 12th, 2007 at 3:22 pm

    $10M?

    if google is trying to be in bill gates’ league in philanthropy, they’ve got a long way to go.

  19. Jon

    September 12th, 2007 at 3:42 pm

    500K to 2M is better then nothing… but barely. My guess is this is more an investment into the long term like buying a few shares of GM when they first began and have it pay a million fold over the next decade. This is a drop in the bucket considering how much they paid for YouTube tough, so what gives?

    Jon

  20. AL

    September 12th, 2007 at 3:48 pm

    This isn’t really a question of whether they’re being generous or not. They’re not donating $10 million to green charities, they’re investing it in for-profit startups. It’s really more of a statement on how much (or how little) of a future they think the green auto industry has.

  21. Ted

    September 12th, 2007 at 5:41 pm

    If I had Googles money - I’d be throwing it around too and getting more returns when I can get them. Good for them.

  22. Steve Ballmer

    September 12th, 2007 at 9:09 pm

    This is what happens when you make too much money too fast! You have no idea what to do with it!
    http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com

  23. Mike Abraham

    September 13th, 2007 at 8:55 am

    Arrington, you are a miserable and cynical bastard. Though maybe you’re right — instead of inventing useful products and doing something to help the environment, perhaps Page and Brin should shutter the big G and start a really important and necessary tech gossip blog.

  24. Jason Trout

    September 13th, 2007 at 7:15 pm

    “yep. we’re all gonna die unless we figure out this electric car thing”

    Ha ha ha. Pretty funny. Especially if you’re a US soldier in Iraq. Hilarious.

  25. charles

    September 13th, 2007 at 7:21 pm

    it’s too bad they don’t know that these hybrid cars in the long run are not clean at all. Their batteries can’t be recycled and nothing lives within 100 miles of where the material is mined for the batteries. that’s 2 cents for their 10 million. biofuels can release us

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