Andreessen Horowitz is investing in a 'smart drugs' startup

Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz has invested in a startup that manufactures performance enhancing supplements known as smart drugs.

The investor, which has used its billions of dollars to back the likes of Twitter, Skype, Airbnb, and Buzzfeed, led a $2 million (£1.3 million) seed investment round into San Francisco startup Nootrobox, which makes pills that "enhance your mental state" and "upgrade your brain," according to the company's website.

Nootrobox is focusing on an area known as "nootropics" and has a range of products, including memory boosting "Rise" pills and energy enhancing "Sprint" pills.

"The new capital will allow us to accelerate clinical research and development on nootropics, to double down on our manufacturing and supply chain innovation, and to continue building a world class team across all disciplines of medicine, software, and product manufacturing," wrote the company's cofounders, Michael Brandt and Geoffrey Woo, on the Nootrobox blog.

According to The New York Times, the startup plans to launch apps that will tell consumers how its drugs are affecting their bodies.

The New York Times reported that the investment is coming out of the main Andreessen Horowitz fund, as opposed to the company's new $200 million (£132 million) life sciences fund, which was announced last month.

Chris Dixon, the Andreessen Horowitz partner who led the investment, has previously backed a company called Soylent, which offers meal replacement drinks.