Google does not seem daunted about acquisitions in the wake of its failure last year to land online coupon site Groupon – indeed, the internet giant’s deals chief plans to be very active, despite challenges that include soaring valuations for some web start-ups.

Coming off a record 48 acquisitions last year, Google was “going to continue to be aggressive,” said David Lawee, Google’s vice president of corporate development, in an interview.

Rather than large targets like Groupon, the main focus for Google continued to be small start-ups that could be a source of new technology, talented engineers and revenue. But courting those start-ups has seldom been harder.

The skyrocketing valuations of internet and mobile device-related start-ups did not appear to worry Lawee, who said they were “high, but they reflect the real possibilities.

“These are truly exciting times” for entrepreneurs.

Besides the possibility of competing offers from other well-heeled internet firms, such as Facebook and Twitter, many entrepreneurs can easily raise money from venture capital firms to hold off the need to seek a buyer.

There can be antitrust hurdles to overcome. Google was still awaiting the US Justice Department’s approval of a $700 million deal announced last summer to buy ITA Software, which was expected to help Google develop a service for searching for travel fares.

There was also a perception that big companies, Google included, can be bureaucratic places that move slowly and are otherwise inhospitable to entrepreneurs.

Lawee said that did not happen at Google, despite having more than 24,000 employees.

“If you’re an entrepreneur and you come to Google, your days as an entrepreneur are not over,” he said.

“Bringing small entrepreneurial teams into Google who have a strong vision for what they want to do has been highly successful for us.”