Marc Andreessen of Andreessen Horowitz, Google Ventures VP Bill Maris and KPCB's John Doerr
Vice-president of Google Ventures Bill Maris has announced that Andreessen Horowitz and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) will join the venture capital investment arm of Google in funding innovative projects based on Google Glass.
Calling themselves the Glass Collective, the investment syndicate will provide seed funding to entrepreneurs and start-ups with ideas that could contribute to the Glass ecosystem.
“New platforms are rare, but can be transformational, when they’re based on great products with robust APIs, powerful distribution and outstanding entrepreneurs. That’s exactly the goal of Glass and the Glass Collective,” wrote KPCB venture capitalist John Doerr on the firm’s website.
Partners from each fund will jointly review Glass-related start-up pitches, and what they’re looking for is services and hardware for Glass, particularly innovations that impact on services people use every day, such as messaging, sharing, search and navigation.
Seed investments will start in the US, but it’s likely that this strategy will evolve along with the platform.
Meanwhile, developers are expected to receive their own Glass hardware to play with within the next month, and the US$1,500 product is expected to see a consumer release later this year.
