Mountain View, Calif.-based Google Ventures, the investment firm that draws capital from its parent company, Alphabet, is moving away from seed-stage investing, according to a blog post from The Wall Street Journal.
In 2014, Becker's Hospital Review reported that Google Ventures' investment in healthcare sector startups rose by 300 percent in 2014, but statements from the firm's president and CEO Bill Maris reflect changes from here on out in it's intentions to invest in seed-stage companies.
"I think there's less opportunity [in seed-stage companies]," Mr. Maris told WSJ. Even though the company plans to taper its investment in young companies, it did commit about 24 percent of its capital to such investments in 2015, up from 8 percent in the previous year, according to the post.
Mr. Maris also said that while Google Ventures plans to shift its focus to more mature, later-stage companies, the problem he sees with many of them is a reluctance to go public. However, in the next 12 to 24 months, he said he expects Google Ventures to begin to invest significantly into healthcare and the life sciences, as much as $250 million.