The last eighteen months or so have been a busy time over at Alphabet, formerly Google. Since the Google of old became Alphabet, the rebranding of the various Google services (be they Alphabet’s ‘Other Bets’ or still Google services) has been ongoing. Multiple arms of the Alphabet and Google empire have seen their name and their logo changing. Some of those that have gone through the process include Google X which simply became X and Google Life Sciences which became Verily. An aspect which seems to be still ongoing as the latest to undergo a rather quiet makeover is Google Capital.
In fact, to all purposes, Google Capital is no longer Google Capital. Instead, it now seems to be CapitalG. So while the change is not massive, it is one which is rather symbolic. Google has been adopting a big ‘G’ in many aspects of its branding, including its apps and its general logo. As such, it does make some sense that Google Capital has now become CapitalG – at least in branding terms. At the moment, this still seems to be a formerly unannounced (by Google) change, although the effects are there for all to see with the old Google Capital domain now redirecting to the new CapitalG website. Likewise, the Twitter and Google+ accounts for Google Capital also seems to now have been succeeded by ones which are assigned to the CapitalG branding, @capitalgtweets and +capitalG respectively. It is worth noting that while the branding has changed the purpose has not, with both the new CapitalG social media channels noting “our goal remains the same: to make returns-driven investments in leading companies around the world.”
For those that are unfamiliar with this specific Google tentacle, CapitalG (formerly, Google Capital) is one of the two investments arms of Google. This one in particular, focuses on investments in companies or businesses which are already established. In contrast, the other arm of Google’s venturing is GV. Which itself went through its own rebranding at the end of last year, as back then it was more obviously known as Google Ventures. So to cut a long story short. The arm of Google which focuses on early investments (formerly Google Ventures) is now GV and the arm that focuses on later investments (formerly Google Capital) is now CapitalG.