SAN FRANCISCO (Bloomberg) - Google Inc., owner of the world's most popular search engine, started a venture-capital unit to fund new technologies as it looks for fresh revenue sources.

Google Ventures will invest $100 million in its first year and mostly target young companies, Bill Maris, a managing director of the unit, said in an interview on Monday. The fund will invest in areas including consumer-oriented Internet companies, health care, robotics and nanotechnology, he said.

"We're not ruling anything out" in terms of investment areas, Mr. Maris said. "We think there will be long-term benefits."

The unit may help Google tap technologies that benefit the Mountain View, California-based company's business, said Rich Miner, also a managing director of the venture. The fund will also boost Google's financial returns from investments at a time when the company is cutting jobs to curb costs as businesses reduce spending on advertising.

Google Ventures may invest some of the initial $100 million in later-stage companies as well, Mr. Maris said.

The announcement comes at a challenging time for venture capital companies. Fundraising in the industry in the US fell 71 percent last quarter, as universities, foundations and other investors shied away from young firms amid the credit crunch and recession, according to the National Venture Capital Association.

Mr. Maris said the recession will not prevent entrepreneurs from coming up with good ideas that can lead to strong companies.

Many of the most interesting companies started during a slump, he said. "Google really started to take off during a downturn."

Google can use its employee base to alert the firm to potential ideas for investments, including about 5,000 people with doctorates who have may have friends looking to start a company, Mr. Miner said.

"Just getting access to early deal flow is a benefit," said Mr. Miner, who previously worked on the Android mobile-phone software at Google.