Looks like that was fast. According to a report published this afternoon by CNBC, former Google GV CEO Bill Maris is talking with investors about raising his own fund, with “preliminary plans” to raise between $350 million and $500 million.
We haven’t been able to confirm the report just yet; we hope to update this post shortly.
Maris founded GV, formerly known as Google Ventures, in 2009, and said last month that he was stepping down to spend more time with his wife and young son and to mull several ideas.
Maris was succeeded at GV by David Krane, a longtime managing partner at GV. Krane had joined the venture arm in 2010 after spending nearly 10 years as Google’s director of global communications and public affairs.
GV employs roughly 70 people who are almost entirely in the U.S., though it has a small team of partners operating out of London, too. Its bets are as diverse as Uber, to Impossible Foods (maker of plant-based meats and cheeses), to the primary care company One Medical Group. (Maris gave us some useful insights into how the Alphabet unit works in a February interview.)
Maris, who studied neuroscience at Middlebury College, has seemed to be intrigued by advances in life sciences in recent years, but one could imagine any new fund would have as wide-ranging a mandate as GV.
More soon!
