Google Ventures chief Bill Maris resigns from company: Report

The company was founded in 2009 by Maris, Google Ventures or GV has invested in over 300 companies from life science, healthcare, artificial intelligence, robotics, transportation, cyber security, and agriculture, and more, according to their profile page. GV’s major investments include Uber, Slack, online retailer Jet.com, which was recently bought by Wal-Mart for nearly $3 billion, Medium which has grown as a popular blogging platform and more.

GV had also invested in Nest, which was acquired by Google in 2014. Interestingly Nest co-founder Tony Fadell, had also announced that he will stepping down as Nest CEO in June of this year.

This is the third-high profile departure from Alphabet. The chief technology officer for Google’s self-driving car mission Chris Urmson announced last week, he would leaving the company as well.
Urmson said in a blog post that after leading the autonomous car team and helping make the leap from research to development, he is “ready for a fresh challenge.” He did not specify what that challenge might be.

“I have every confidence that the mission is in capable hands,” Urmson wrote, “It has been a privilege and honor to be part of a team that has been at the forefront of bringing this life-saving technology to the world.” Urmson joined what was then a secret project inside California-based Google a little more than seven years ago.

Also read: Head of Google’s self-driving car effort hits the road

In case of Maris and GV, Recode reports there have been some misses from the firm as well which includes its investment in the app Secret. GV had been increasing investments in health and biotech, but Google has also launched its own investment arm called Google Capital in 2013, which was investing in companies that competed with GV’s investments. 

With Reuters Inputs