Firespotter Labs, a US-based incubator backed by the corporate venturing unit of US-listed search engine Google, has raised $15m in its series B round.
Alongside Google Ventures in the B round is venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, which led the round.
In May last year, Google Ventures invested $3m in Firespotter, an incubator set up by some of its former engineers that has developed audio conferencing company ÜberConference, dining application NoshList, rating applications Nosh and Jotly and travel company Triptrotting.
Craig Walker set up Firespotter Labs after selling GrandCentral to Google (it became Google Voice) and becoming an entrepreneur-in-residence at Google Ventures in September 2010. Walker had teamed with ex-Googlers Brian Peterson and John Rector as well as Alex Cornell but said in his blog that Firespotter would develop its team’s ideas rather than third parties’.
He said: “We’re already working on too many ideas to effectively develop today (more engineers please!). As such, we’re not an incubator in the sense that we would develop, fund or build other people’s ideas or projects.
Blake Krikorian, co-founder and former chief executive of Sling Media, has joined Walker and Wesley Chan, a partner at Google Ventures, on Firespotter’s board.
Chan said: “As the earliest investors in Firespotter, we are excited with the progress they have made, and the new products coming to market.”