PayPal founders launch $50 million VC fund

The founders of PayPal have launched a $50 million venture capital fund focused on "emerging companies in the consumer Internet sector," they said. The Founders Fund, announced this week, is run by PayPal co-founders Peter Thiel and Ken Howery, who left PayPal when it merged with eBay in 2002. Another PayPal co-founder, Luke Nosek, is also involved as are fund managers who made early investments in several Internet start-ups including Facebook, Friendster and LinkedIn.

The fund intends to concentrate on seed and early stage investments in the range of $500,000 to $1 million. The San Francisco-based group has already invested in several companies, but is keeping the details under wraps for now. It touted its partners' credentials in a statement announcing the creation of the fund. "Unlike traditional venture capital funds, The Founders Fund is managed exclusively by entrepreneurs who have successfully developed their own companies, which provides the fund with unmatched depth of knowledge and real-world expertise for building companies from the ground up," it said.