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VC fundraising may have cooled off but not for successful serial entrepreneurs Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, whose initial $300 million fund is apparently sizzling. Kara Swisher reported on Thursday that the duo has closed its oversubscribed Andreessen Horowitz fund at $300 million, above the original $250 million target. The fund will focus on early-stage digital media startups, Andreessen told Charlie Rose back in February when he announced the fund on "The Charlie Rose Show." Andreessen, the founder of Netscape Communications Corp., Opsware (bought by Hewlett-Packard Co. [NYSE:HPQ]) and private-label social networking service Ning, has been a longtime angel investor in some of most successful Web 2.0 startups, including Digg Inc., Facebook Inc., LinkedIn Corp. and Twitter Inc. Horowitz is a co-founder of Opsware who served as an executive at Netscape. Andreessen Horowitz tapped traditional limited partners for the fund, who are ponying up $20 million and more apiece, as well as accepting checks from fellow Silicon Valley "luminaries" who chipped in $1 million or less each, says Swisher. Only three vehicles were closed by first-time venture capitalists in the first quarter of 2009, down from 10 in the year-ago quarter, according to the National Venture Capital Association. (The Deal Pipeline subscribers can learn more about the challenges first-time VC firms face here.) But funds led by former entrepreneurs appear to be having an easier time thanks to their track record and the names in their e-mail address books. MyPoints founder Noah Doyle's Stage5 Ventures is raising $266 million, and Skype co-founders Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis are marketing a $250 million fund, according to paidContent. Below is a chart that shows some of the VC firms that are reportedly in fundraising mode now. - George White
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