One interesting funding mechanisms in this space is Emergent Ventures / Fast Grants. It functions more as a non-profit than a VC entity, including recently organizing $10m in funding for Covid-19 research, including from a bunch of names we would recognize (though not Marc Andreessen):
> I very much wish to thank John Collison, Patrick Collison, Paul Graham, Reid Hoffman, Fiona McKean and Tobias Lütke, Yuri and Julia Milner, and Chris and Crystal Sacca for their generous support of this initiative
It will be interesting to see what returns society gets on this $7m.
But in general, I don't think we should be expecting VCs to fund innovation, it is hard to capture most of the value of most innovations, so you end up with VCs writing about how you need to seek monopolies.
Funding innovation is something we should be asking more of our government.
> I very much wish to thank John Collison, Patrick Collison, Paul Graham, Reid Hoffman, Fiona McKean and Tobias Lütke, Yuri and Julia Milner, and Chris and Crystal Sacca for their generous support of this initiative
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2020/04/fa...
In the intervening week, $7m in funding was distributed:
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2020/04/fa...
It will be interesting to see what returns society gets on this $7m.
But in general, I don't think we should be expecting VCs to fund innovation, it is hard to capture most of the value of most innovations, so you end up with VCs writing about how you need to seek monopolies.
Funding innovation is something we should be asking more of our government.