Andreessen Horowitz Google Business Model and Funding Initiatives

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Andreessen Horowitz has been a key player in Google's funding initiatives, with a significant investment in the company's early days.

The firm's co-founder Marc Andreessen was a member of Google's board of directors from 2009 to 2012.

Andreessen Horowitz has also invested in several Google-backed startups, including Nest and Uber.

Google's business model has been a key focus for Andreessen Horowitz, with the firm's investors and partners working closely with Google to identify and support new opportunities.

Google's Venture Investments

Google Ventures teams up with top venture capital firms to fund innovative projects based on Google Glass.

The Glass Collective, a new investment syndicate, includes Google Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, and KPCB.

This collective will provide seed funding to entrepreneurs and start-ups with ideas that could contribute to the Glass ecosystem.

They're looking for services and hardware for Glass, particularly innovations that impact on services people use every day, such as messaging, sharing, search, and navigation.

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The investment syndicate will jointly review Glass-related start-up pitches.

Seed investments will start in the US, but it's likely that this strategy will evolve along with the platform.

Developers will receive their own Glass hardware to play with within the next month.

The US$1,500 product is expected to see a consumer release later this year.

Google's Acquisitions

Google's Acquisitions have been a key factor in the company's growth and innovation.

In 2006, Google acquired Android, a mobile operating system, from Android Inc. for $50 million.

Google's acquisition of Waze in 2013 was a strategic move to enhance its mapping capabilities.

Keyhole, a geospatial data visualization company, was acquired by Google in 2004 for $30 million.

Google's acquisition of Nest, a home automation company, in 2014 was a significant move into the IoT space.

Google's Funding Initiatives

Google Ventures teams up with Andreessen Horowitz and KPCB to fund Glass projects, creating the Glass Collective, an investment syndicate that will provide seed funding to entrepreneurs and start-ups with ideas that contribute to the Glass ecosystem.

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The Glass Collective will jointly review Glass-related start-up pitches, looking for services and hardware that impact everyday services like messaging, sharing, search, and navigation.

Partners from each fund will evaluate opportunities concurrently and may invest collectively or individually, carving out funding for glass-related ventures from their existing funds.

Google Ventures regularly co-invests with Andreessen and Kleiner, and having three firms involved will increase the chance of success for the entrepreneurs they fund.

The tool set and feature set for developers working with Google Glass, such as voice activation and augmented reality, are very attractive, according to Ben Arnold, director of industry analysis for consumer technology at the NPD Group.

Google Glass can live-stream images and audio, perform computing tasks, and record video, access email, and retrieve information from the Internet, making it a powerful platform for innovation.

The timing of the Glass Collective's initiative, coming before the obvious growth of the Google Glass ecosystem, is similar to Kleiner's $200 million iFund, which backed entrepreneurs building applications and services for iPhones, iPods, and iPads.

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