A large health fund (Essex VIII) closes and a major health investor (Google) emerges

Essex Woodlands Health Ventures has closed on $900 million – one of the largest ever for a health-care-only fund, according to The Wall Street Journal.

At the same time, the search giant Google revealed its long-expected venture arm. Its portfolio will include health-care, biotech and cleantech companies and investments will “range from seed funding to tens of millions of dollars,” according to the Google Ventures FAQ.

In Essex’s case, it had initially hoped to raise $1 billion for its eighth fund, according to filings made last April with the Securities and Exchange Commission. But the economy made that difficult. Nonetheless, Managing Director Immanuel Thangaraj told the Journal’s Venture Capital Dispatch that with valuations falling and capital scarce, “fund eight has the kind of purchasing power we’ve not seen in 25 years of operations.”

An Essex release said it will “ primarily make growth equity investments in companies with a rapidly expanding revenue base and venture investments in companies with breakthrough technologies.” Those investments will be as large as $75 million, according to the Journal, though Essex will still consider traditional early stage venture investments.

Google’s new fund, meanwhile, is a bit of a wild card that is high on potential but low on specifics. The New York Times reports the company wants to invest $100 million over the next 12 months.

Google’s FAQ offers a series of tidbits: it will do seed rounds and investments worth tens of millions; it will co-invest and be actively involved in its investments; and along with the health-care space it will invest in consumer Internet, software and hardware companies.

The FAQ states that while Google could acquire some of its portfolio companies, that’s not Google Ventures’ goal. “Our focus is building great companies and generating long term financial return,” according to the site.

The Times says Google Ventures has made two investments: technology companies Silver Spring Networks and Pixazza. Google wouldn’t say how much it invested, though Pixazza recently raised about $5.7 million and Silver Spring in October had in October filed paperwork with the SEC announcing plans to raise up to $75 million.