Glass Explorer Edition set to ship next month as Google announces “Glass Collective” seed fund

When we heard reports late last month that Google might be planning to assemble its Google Glass headsets in the US, we also heard the company was preparing to make a ‘few thousand’ units of its Explorer Edition for contest winners and others receiving the opportunity to purchase the $1500 hardware. Today we get a bit of an update with Google confirming at its “Glass Collective” event that Glass will ship within the next month (via TechCrunch).

It’s not too surprising given Google I/O is set to take place next month starting May 15, but Google also announced today that it will be offering seed funding to developers within the Glass ecosystem through a new fund dubbed “Glass Collective”:

Here at Google Ventures, my partners and I thought the potential for Glass was significant enough to invite our friends at Andreessen Horowitz and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers to join us in exploring this big opportunity. We’ve formed the Glass Collective, an investment syndicate between our three firms, to provide seed funding to entrepreneurs in the Glass ecosystem to help jumpstart their ideas.

Google will start its seed investments in the US and along with its Google Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, and KPCB, will be reviewing applications for Glass ideas submitted to the various firms involved.