Netscape founder and angel investor Marc Andreessen is partnering with long-time co-investor and Opsware executive Ben Horowitz to launch a fund to focus on venture investments of about $500,000. Andreessen and Horowitz have been co-investing as angels for years, with average investments of around $100,000 per deal; they formed the new fund to make more significant initial investments, citing the fact that many startups now need only about $500,000 to $1 million to bring their product to market. Since founding Netscape, Andreessen has remained active in the internet space and was one of the original angel investors in such buzzy startups as Digg and Twitter. The new fund was announced on the Charlie Rose Show and later reported by peHUB

Andreessen and Horowitz’s angel fund, appropriately named “Horowitz Andreessen Angel Fund I,” has been actively investing in startups for several years, having recently taken stakes in kaChing, virtual worlds company Metaplace, mobile video company Qik, online publishing company Crowdfusion, dating site I’m in like with you, search company Blekko and lonelygirl15-producer EQAL. The angel investment community is helpful in providing entrepreneurs with the capital needed to get their idea off the ground, but it is often difficult for operators to find the right angel investor for their idea, which can lead to conflicts that often hinder a company’s growth.  So, most entrepreneurs will likely be pleased to see two proven, successful angel investors with more money to spread around.

In the interview with Rose, Andreessen spoke briefly about Facebook (he sits on the board) and said the company could generating billions in annual revenue if it accepted banner ads and would earn $1 billion a year if it sold ads on its homepage. Rose also asked Andreessen what he thought the next big thing was.  His answer: live streaming from cell phones,

He was far less upbeat about the future of some traditional media businesses. For newspapers, “the game is up,” he said. “It’s completely over.”

Photo Credit: Joi

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