Di-Ann Eisnor, a director at internet technology provider Google’s Area 120 incubator, has joined US-based venture capital firm Obvious Ventures as a venture partner.
Eisnor took a position at Area 120, which enables teams from within Google to pitch ideas and, if accepted, develop them full-time, five months ago and has concentrated on incubating new urban systems.
Launched in 2016, Area 120 is named after the idea that employees may take 20% of their time to work on side projects through the initiative. Should the projects prove viable, they can be integrated into an existing Google product or spun out as a separate company with funding from Google.
As a venture partner at Obvious Ventures, Eisnor will be responsible for adding startups to the firm’s urban infrastructure portfolio, which includes electric vehicle charging service Amply, distributed energy platform Enbala and construction materials supplier Plant Prefab.
Eisnor has worked for Google since 2013 when it acquired Waze, the traffic navigation platform developer where she had been director of growth since 2009, a position she retained post-acquisition.
During her time at Waze, Eisnor launched the Israel-headquartered company’s US office in 2009 and founded Waze Connected Citizens Program, which worked with 650 cities and departments of transportation to reduce congestion and improve emergency response times using data.
Prior to joining Waze, Eisnor was co-founder and CEO of collaborative mapping website Platial and co-founded entrepeneurship micro fund Neighborhood Start Fund.
Photo of Di-Ann Eisnor courtesy of LinkedIn.