Who Gave Google Its Startup Funding?

Larry Page is one of two Google founders; the other is Sergey Brin.

Google, the most popular search engine on the Internet, began as a project launched by two Stanford University grad students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, in 1996. At the time, the project was known as "BackRub," and ran off the Stanford University server until it began to take up too much room. Page and Brin renamed the search engine "Google" in 1997, and secured their first of three main financial donations to start the company one year later.

Andy Bechtolsheim

Andy Bechtolsheim became the first person to provide financial backing to Google. In August 1998, Bechtolsheim, who co-founded Sun Microsystems, gave Larry Page and Sergey Brin a $100,000 check. At the time, Google didn't even technically exist; Page and Brin did not file for incorporation until Sept. 4, 1998. Page and Brin waited until after incorporating Google Inc. to open a bank account and deposit Bechtolsheim's check. The first round of startup funding for Google -- launched by Bechtolsteim's contribution -- netted roughly $1 million; Google has never publicly released the names of the other contributors in that first group.

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers is a venture capital firm that made a $12.5 million contribution to Google in June 1999. Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers -- called KPCB for short -- also contributed startup money to companies such as Palm and Invisalign. Google announced the donation in its first press release. At the same time, KPCB partner L. John Doerr joined Google's board of directors; as of the date of publication, he's still on the board.

Sequoia Capital

At the same time that KPCB contributed $12.5 million in startup money to Google, a second venture capital firm -- Sequoia Capital -- did the same. Sequoia made its $12.5 million contribution in June 1999, as announcement that was also made in Google's first press release. Part of Sequoia's deal with Page and Brin mandated that the two co-founders hire a CEO or risk losing the funding. In March 2001, Google hired its first chief executive -- Eric Schmidt.

Initial Public Offering

Still looking for more funding, Google went public in August 2004. Google's initial public offering (IPO) included 19,605,052 shares of Class A common stock. Each share was sold on the NASDAQ for $85, with a total valuation of $1,666,429,420. Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse First Boston underwrote the offering. To this day, Google is still traded on the NASDAQ under the stock name "GOOG."

References

• KPCB: Portfolio
• Google: Google History
• "Google"; Google Inc. Prices Initial Public Offering Of Class A Common Stock; August 18, 2004