Marc Andreessen is on a roll. Earlier this month he raised a $300m venture capital fund with his business partner, Ben Horowitz. Now Ning, the social networking startup he co-founded, has raised $15m from Lightspeed Venture Partners at a whopping $750m valuation, according to All Things Digital.
Valuing Ning at $750m seems more than generous, considering the company has never said it is profitable. Even before the economic crisis, these would have been favourable terms. Slide, which makes applications for social networks, last January raised money at a $550 valuation, while LinkedIn, a social network for professionals, got a $1bn valuation last June.
But it seems investors are still willing to give some Web 2.0 companies the benefit of the doubt, trusting that a large enough audience will inevitably lead to profits. Founded in 2007, Ning lets its 29m users create their own social networks. Its aim is to fill the niche spaces where conventional social networks fall short. And its handsome valuation is a sign that investors, at least, believe it those will be lucrative spaces.
Neither Ning, nor its new valuation, however, hold a candle to Facebook, with 250m users and a recent valuation of $6.5bn.
