Salman Ullah, a top dealmaker at Google, has left the company to start VC firm Copper River Partners reports VentureBeat. In his role as the company’s director of corporate development, he helped the company seek out acquisitions, often speaking at conferences about the types of companies Google (NSDQ: GOOG) was looking to buy. The move will only heighten the sense that holding onto key talent is one of the major challenges facing the company. Among the recent departures is Adam Bosworth, former head of the company’s health initiative, who left for entrepreneurial pursuits.

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Update: VentureBeat has updated some details: Ullah is leaving Google next month and his firm is actually called Merus Capital. Om adds that he will be joined at the fund by Sean Dempsey of Google’s corporate development group and Peter Hsing, a GM of corporate strategy at Microsoft. The fund will focus on small, early stage deals.