Google officially announces Google Capital, the company’s own venture fund

Google Inc. (GOOG)’s new investment arm has $300 million in fresh capital to put to work this year and is starting the dealmaking with its first foray into Web education. Google Capital, established by the search company to back late-stage technology startups, is getting twice as much money as it had last year, said David Lawee, who manages the unit. Google Capital is putting $40 million into Renaissance Learning Inc., an education software company, and aims to do five or six deals this year, Lawee said. After jumping into early-stage investing in 2009 with the creation of Google Ventures, the Mountain View, California-based company is funding a team that can write bigger checks for Web businesses that are further along in their development. The group, which officially debuted today after doing two deals in 2013, expects to almost double its staff to 15 in the next year from eight today.