Andreessen Horowitz just raised $1.5 billion to invest in the next big thing

AP

As the champions of "software is eating the world", Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz announced Friday that it has closed its latest fund: a whopping $1.5 billion. 

Founded in 2009 by VCs Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, the venture firm has now grown to more than 125 people. Its investments include big hitters like Lyft, Airbnb, Slack, and Pinterest. 

The new fund, Fund V, will continue to invest in seed, early stage, and mid-stage tech companies — if they fit the firm's "software is eating the world" model.

The new fund is the same size as the firms' last two funds, the most recent of which was raised in March 2014. 

"The market opportunity for successful new technology businesses is bigger than ever. New startups are being created every day, driven by the significant expansion in market size as well as fundamental enabling innovations: Besides cloud, mobile, and full-stack approaches, there are more breakthroughs than ever before in machine learning, deep learning, and AI," wrote Scott Kupor in a blog announcing the fund. 

NOW WATCH: Google opens up a 21,000-square-foot campus in South Korea for startups