LevelUp, who’s Director for Boston Christian Sann is shown in this file photo in their Boston headquarters, is among the many Google Ventures investments in Massachusetts. Credit: Nicolaus Czarnecki, Metro
As CB Insights puts it, Google Ventures “has seen a huge spike in activity in recent years.” Most of that has been near the Google “mothership” in California, as Google is the firm’s sole financial backer.
But it turns out that Massachusetts, not New York, is the second-busiest center of investing activity for the prominent VC firm, according to BetaBoston.
And actually, it’s not even close. CB Insights data shows that Google Ventures made more than twice as many investments in Massachusetts as New York from 2010-2013 — 36 investments in Massachusetts, versus 14 in New York.
Some of those were different rounds for the same company (and other deals haven’t been disclosed).
Still, it seems fair to conclude that Google Ventures — which has an office in Cambridge led by partner Rich Miner — is finding a lot to love in the Hub.
Google Ventures so far has disclosed investments in a total of 24 Boston-area companies (see below). Four have been acquired and one has gone public, Foundation Medicine. Among the notable Boston companies in the current Google Ventures portfolio are HubSpot, CustomMade, Panorama Education, Yesware, and LevelUp.
But a Google Ventures spokeswoman denied any favoritism in an email to BetaBoston.
“Our view is that innovation can come from anywhere, and we in no way ‘favor’ one region over another,” she wrote.
Here’s the full list of disclosed Google Ventures investments in Massachusetts, along with a description of what they do.
Adelphic -Mobile ad-targeting technology
BuysideFX -Software for foreign exchange systems
Collaborate – (Acquired by Cisco) — business team collaboration tech
CustomMade – Online custom goods marketplace
Disruptor Beam – Maker of Game of Thrones Ascent
EnglishCentral – Online English-learning service
Foundation Medicine – (IPO) — cancer treatments
HubSpot – Inbound marketing software
Kensho – Artificially intelligent research assistant
LevelUp – Mobile payments app
Objective Logistics – Restaurant employee ranking software
Openbay – Online auto repair booking service
Panorama Education – Software for schools to gather feedback
Predilytics – Health data analytics software
Recorded Future – Software for anticipating future events and opportunities
Smarterer – Online skill assessments
Sold – (Acqui-hired by Dropbox) — site for selling used smartphones
SynapDx – Lab services for autism spectrum disorders
Tamr – Mapping for a company’s data sources
Tracelytics – (Acquired by AppNeta) — application performance management
TrueLens – Marketing software using social data
Ubersense – App for analyzing athletic techniques
Wingu – (Acquired by PerkinElmer) — software for pharmaceutical R&D
Yesware – Email productivity software for salespeople
