Andreessen Horowitz

Andreessen Horowitz (also called a16z, legal name AH Capital Management, LLC) is a private American venture capital firm, founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. The company is headquartered in Menlo Park, California. As of April 2023, Andreessen Horowitz ranks first on the list of venture capital firms by assets under management.[1]

AH Capital Management, LLC
TypePrivate
IndustryVenture capital
FoundedJuly 6, 2009 (2009-07-06)
FoundersMarc Andreessen
Ben Horowitz
Headquarters
Menlo Park, California
,
U.S.
AUM$35 billion
(as of March 12, 2022)
Websitewww.a16z.com

Andreessen Horowitz invests in both early-stage start-ups and established growth companies.[2] Its investments span the healthcare, consumer, cryptocurrency, gaming, fintech, education and enterprise IT (including cloud computing, security, and software as a service) industries.[3]

Founding and partnering
Marc Andreessen (left) and Ben Horowitz (right) are the company's founders.

Between 2006 and 2010, Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz actively invested in technology companies. Separately, and together, they invested $4 million in 45 start-ups including Twitter.[4] During this time, the two became known as "super angel" investors.[4]

On July 6, 2009, Andreessen and Horowitz launched their venture capital fund with an initial capitalization of $300 million.[5] In November 2010, at a time when the field of venture capitalism was contracting, the company raised another $650 million for a second venture fund.[5][6] In less than two years, the firm was managing a total of $1.2 billion under the two funds.[3]

In May 2011, Andreessen ranked number 10 on the 2011 Forbes Midas List of Tech's Top Investors[7] while he and Horowitz ranked number 6 on Vanity Fair's 2011 New Establishment List[8] and number 1 on CNET's 2011 most influential investors list.[9]

As of March 27, 2014, the firm managed $4 billion in assets after the closing of its fourth fund at $1.5 billion.[10]

In addition to Andreessen and Horowitz, the firm's general partners include John O'Farrell, Scott Weiss, Jeff Jordan, Peter Levine, Chris Dixon, Vijay Pande,[11] Martin Casado and Sriram Krishnan.[12][13][14][15] In March 2019, it was reported that Andreessen Horowitz was opening an office in San Francisco.[16]

In January 2022, Andreessen Horowitz raised $9 billion for its venture capital, growth-stage and biotech-focused vehicles.[17][18]

As of April 2022, the firm manages $28.2 billion in assets.[19][20]

Notable investments

2009

In 2009, Andreessen Horowitz made its two first investments: one in business management SaaS developer Apptio[21] and the other in Skype stock.[22] According to Horowitz, the investment was seen as risky by other experts in the field who believed the company would be crippled by ongoing intellectual property litigation and direct competitive attacks from Google and Apple.[22] The company's founders viewed the investment as a success following Skype's sale to Microsoft in May 2011 for $8.5 billion.[22]

2010–2011

In 2010, Andreessen Horowitz invested $10 million in cloud company Okta while leading its Series A Round.[23]

In 2011, Andreessen Horowitz invested $80 million in Twitter,[5] becoming the first venture firm that held stock in all four of the highest-valued, privately held social media companies at the time: Facebook, Groupon, Twitter, and Zynga.[3] Andreessen Horowitz has also invested in Airbnb, Lytro, Jawbone, Belly, Foursquare, Stripe and other high-tech companies.[5][24][25]

2012–2013

In 2012, Andreessen Horowitz invested in 156 companies, including the 90 companies in its portfolio,[26] and 66 start-ups[27] through its funding of Y Combinator's Start Fund.[28] The company invested $100 million in GitHub, which netted over $1 billion for the fund when GitHub was acquired by Microsoft for $7.5 billion.[29][30] In 2013, Andreessen Horowitz invested in Clinkle, Coinbase, Databricks, Lyft, Oculus VR, PagerDuty, Pixlee, Ripple, Soylent, Swiftype and uBiome.[31][32][33][34][35][36][37]

2014–2015

In 2014, the firm led a $57 million Series B round in the A/B testing startup Optimizely.[38] That same year the company invested in several more companies, including Tanium for $90 million,[39] BuzzFeed,[40] and Forward Networks.[41] In 2015, the firm invested $40 million in Stack Exchange,[42][43] $2.8 million in Distelli,[44] and $80 million in cloud-based CAD software company Onshape.[45] Also in 2015 Andreessen Horowitz invested in the blogging platform Medium,[46] Samsara,[47] Improbable,[48] Honor, Inc.,[49] OpenBazaar,[50][51] a blockchain startup, and nootropics and biohacking company Nootrobox.[52]

2016–2019

In 2016, the firm led an $8.1 million Series A round in Everlaw, a legal technology company, and led a $3.5 million Series Seed round in RapidAPI, an API connection platform for developers.[53][54] Also in 2016, the firm invested $2 million in Cardiogram, a digital health company,[55] and Apeel Sciences, a food science business.[56]

In 2017, the firm invested in Sigma, Health IQ, Asimov, and Cadre.[57][58][59][60][61]

In 2018, the firm raised $300 million for a dedicated cryptocurrency fund.[62] It has also invested in Imply, Smartcar, PeerStreet, CryptoKitties, Dfinity, Earnin, Pindrop, Tenfold, and Very Good Security.[63][64][65][66][67]

In 2019 the firm provided $15.3 million in Series A funding to Substack, some of which went to bringing high-profile writers into that network. [68] In June 2019 the firm also invested in a $9.2 million Series A round in AnyRoad, an experiential marketing platform, and David Ulevitch from Andreessen Horowitz joined the AnyRoad board.[69]

2020

In 2020, the firm led a $150 million Series G round in Roblox, a social video game platform for children.[70][71]

In April 2020, the firm led a $50 million Series D round in Figma, a vector graphics editor and prototyping tool.[72]

Also in April 2020, the firm raised $515 million for a second cryptocurrency-focused fund.[73]

In May 2020, the firm made a $12 million Series A investment in Clubhouse ($10 million in primary capital plus $2 million toward purchasing shares), an audio-chat social networking app valued at nearly $100 million as of December 2020.[74][75]

2021

In January 2021, the firm led a $100 million Series B for the audio-chat social networking app Clubhouse, reportedly valuing it at $1 billion.[76] In April 2021, it led a $220 million Series D for mobile banking and fintech company Current.[77][78]

In July 2021, the firm led a $100 million Series A for the NFT marketplace OpenSea, reportedly valuing it at $1.5 billion.[79]

In September 2021, the firm led an $18 million Series A fundraise in Pearl Health, a healthcare technology company.

In October 2021, A16z led the round to Raise $150M Series B at $3B Valuation in Vietnamese studio Sky Mavis, the developer of crypto-based online game Axie Infinity.[80][81]

2022

In March 2022, Andreessen Horowitz led the round to raise $450 million at a $4B Valuation in Yuga Labs (known for Bored Apes).[82] In October 2022, it was reported that the US Securities and Exchange Commission were investigating Yuga Labs, due to concerns that sales of their digital assets violated US investment laws.[83]

In March 2022, the firm led $27 million Series A for the Rutter, a universal API for commerce data.[84]

In March 2022, A16z with Lux Capital co-led an $90 million round of Los Angeles-based machine-parts start-up Hadrian Automation.[85]

In May 2022, the firm announced the launch of its largest fund to date at $4.5 billion. The fund is set to focus on cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies. The firm stated that $1.5 billion was allocated to seed investments while the remaining $3 billion would be earmarked for venture investments.[86]

In August 2022, the firm announced it would be investing about $350 million in Flow, the latest organization begun by WeWork founder Adam Neumann. The purported aim of Flow is to create a branded product in the housing market with consistent community features, reimagining how real estate works in the US. [87] The decision was met with some criticism due to Neumann's previous business issues in his time at WeWork. [88]

The firm committed to $400 million in equity investment towards acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk that completed in October 2022.[89][90]

Structure

Andreessen Horowitz partners work on behalf of all its portfolio companies, an approach modeled after the Hollywood talent agency, Creative Artists Agency.[91] In 2010, the company hired Margit Wennmachers, a marketing executive at the partner level.[92]

As of 2011, the firm had maintained a database of designers, coders, and executives and used it to help fill positions at its start-ups.[93] Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers became a special advisor to Andreessen Horowitz in June 2011.[94]

In September 2012, former Washington D.C. mayor Adrian Fenty was appointed Andreessen Horowitz's second special advisor.[95] Fenty was hired to advise the firm's portfolio companies on working with local, state, and federal governments.[94]

In 2019, the firm applied to restructure as a registered investment adviser in order to have more freedom to take up riskier bets like cryptocurrency.[96][97]

In 2023, the firm announced that it is establishing a cryptocurrency-investment entity in London, United Kingdom.[98]

References
  1. "Rankings by Total Managed AUM". Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute. Retrieved June 11, 2023.
  2. Arrington, Michael (June 21, 2010). "Andreessen Horowitz Celebrates First Year With New General Partner John O'Farrell". News. TechCrunch. Retrieved April 14, 2012.
  3. Horowitz, Ben. "Andreessen Horowitz has a new $200m Co-Investment Fund". ben's blog. Andreessen Horowitz. Archived from the original on April 7, 2011. Retrieved April 13, 2012.
  4. Wong Kromhout, Wileen. "Ben Horowitz MS '90". UCLA Engineering. Archived from the original on February 12, 2012. Retrieved April 13, 2012.
  5. Maney, Kevin (July 6, 2009). "Marc Andreessen puts his money where his mouth is". CNNMoney. CNN. Retrieved April 13, 2012.
  6. Cain Miller, Claire (November 3, 2010). "Andreessen Horowitz Starts Second Fund". The New York Times. Retrieved April 14, 2012.
  7. "#10 Marc Andreessen". Midas List Tech's Top Investors. Forbes. Archived from the original on February 9, 2018. Retrieved April 13, 2012.
  8. "The 2011 New Establishment List: And the Top Spot Goes to..." VF Daily. Vanity Fair. September 2011. Retrieved April 13, 2012.
  9. "Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz". CNET News. CNET. Archived from the original on February 8, 2012. Retrieved April 13, 2012.
  10. Dillet, Romain (March 27, 2014). "Andreessen Horowitz Raises Massive New $1.5 Billion Fund". TechCrunch. Retrieved May 15, 2014.
  11. Rooney, Kate (October 6, 2019). "Meet the former prosecutor asked to investigate bitcoin who became the face of crypto VC investing". CNBC. Retrieved October 9, 2019.
  12. "Team – Andreessen Horowitz". a16z.com. Retrieved January 15, 2017.
  13. "Connie Chan breaks the mold at Andreessen Horowitz, becoming the first general partner to be promoted from within". techcrunch.com. June 17, 2018. Retrieved January 16, 2020.
  14. "An Uber executive is now the newest shot-caller at Andreessen Horowitz". Recode. Retrieved April 11, 2018.
  15. The Associated Press (June 30, 2018). "Barack Obama visits venture capital firm on California trip". ABC News.
  16. Kawamoto, Dawn (March 11, 2019). "Venture capital powerhouse is latest Silicon Valley firm to open San Francisco office". www.bizjournals.com. San Francisco Business Times. Retrieved March 16, 2019.
  17. Horowitz, Ben (January 7, 2022). "$9B to Build the Future".
  18. Wilhelm, Alex (January 7, 2022). "Andreessen Horowitz raises $9B in new capital for venture, growth, bio funds". TechCrunch.
  19. "Bloomberg Wealth with David Rubenstein: Marc Andreessen". Bloomberg News. Bloomberg News. August 4, 2021.
  20. "About". Andreessen Horowitz. Retrieved August 31, 2021.
  21. Ricketts, Camille (August 19, 2009). "First Andreessen Horowitz investment, Apptio, raises $14M". Venture Beat. Retrieved March 20, 2014.
  22. Ovide, Shira (May 10, 2011). "Microsoft-Skype Deal: Andreessen Horowitz Takes Victory Lap". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved April 14, 2012.
  23. "Okta Is Now a Unicorn After $75 Million Funding Round". Recode. Retrieved October 15, 2017.
  24. Rao, Leena. "Customer Loyalty and Rewards Program For Local Businesses Belly Raises $10M From Andreessen Horowitz". News. TechCrunch. Retrieved April 14, 2012.
  25. Siegler, MG (April 28, 2011) "Investors Don't Just Like LikeALittle A Little, They Like It A Lot." TechCrunch. (Retrieved 6-17-2016.)
  26. Gustin, Sam (January 31, 2012). "Tech Boom: Andreessen Horowitz Raises $1.5 Billion VC Fund". Time Business. Time. Retrieved April 14, 2012.
  27. Mitroff, Sarah (March 27, 2012). "Y Combinator shows off 39 companies at Demo Day". News. VentureBeat. Retrieved April 19, 2012.
  28. Kelly, Meghan (October 15, 2011). "Andreessen-Horowitz to give $50K to all Y Combinator startups through Start Fund". Deals. VentureBeat. Retrieved April 19, 2012.
  29. "Andreessen Horowitz is pocketing a huge win in the $7.5 billion GitHub acquisition". Recode. Retrieved October 16, 2018.
  30. "Microsoft Buys GitHub for $7.5 Billion". Andreessen Horowitz. June 4, 2018. Retrieved October 16, 2018.
  31. Chokkattu, Julian (August 18, 2014). "uBiome Raises $4.5M From Angel Investors, Andreessen Horowitz To Crowdsource Microbiome Research". TechCrunch. Retrieved May 30, 2016.
  32. Strauss, Karsten. "Can Pixlee Change Image-Based Marketing? $1.5M On 'Yes'". Forbes. Retrieved May 30, 2016.
  33. "Oculus Rift ensures additional $75 million to take virtual reality mainstream". SiliconANGLE. December 23, 2013. Retrieved May 30, 2016.
  34. "Big-Name Investors Back Effort to Build a Better Bitcoin". MIT Technology Review. Retrieved May 30, 2016.
  35. Primack, Dan (June 27, 2013). "Clinkle raises $25 million to kill Square". CNNMoney.com. Archived from the original on January 13, 2014. Retrieved January 26, 2014.
  36. Williams, Alex (January 31, 2013). "PagerDuty Raises $10.7M Round From Andreessen Horowitz For IT Alert Service Modeled On AWS System". TechCrunch. Retrieved August 30, 2016.
  37. Lorica, Ben (September 25, 2013). "Databricks aims to build next-generation analytic tools for Big Data". O'Reilly Media. Retrieved February 9, 2019.
  38. "Website Testing Company Optimizely Raises $57M Round Led By Andreessen Horowitz". TechCrunch. May 5, 2014. Retrieved May 17, 2014.
  39. "Venture Capital Giant Andreesen Horowitz Ploughs $90m into Tanium". InfoSecurity Magazine. June 24, 2014. Retrieved June 24, 2014.
  40. Mandaro, Laura. "BuzzFeed receives $50 million from Andreessen Horowitz". USA Today. Retrieved August 22, 2014.
  41. Weber, Harrison. "Andreessen Horowitz-backed startup Forward Networks raises $11M". VentureBeat. Retrieved February 12, 2018.
  42. Dixon, Chris. "A16Z Invests in Stack Exchange". Archived from the original on January 21, 2015. Retrieved January 21, 2015.
  43. Spolsky, Joel (January 20, 2015). "Andreessen Horowitz Invests in Stack Exchange". stackoverflow.com. Retrieved January 21, 2015.
  44. "Distelli Snags 2.8M to Build Deployment as a Service". TechCrunch. January 20, 2015.
  45. Loizos, Connie (September 24, 2015). "Onshape Raises $80 Million Led By Andreessen Horowitz". www.techcrunch.com. Retrieved September 30, 2015.
  46. Yeung, Ken (September 28, 2015). "Publishing site Medium takes on $57M led by Andreessen Horowitz". www.venturebeat.com. Retrieved September 30, 2015.
  47. "Meraki founders score $25 million from Andreessen Horowitz for sensor startup". www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved November 19, 2019.
  48. Russell, Jon (March 24, 2015). "Improbable Lands $20M From Andreessen Horowitz For Distributed Simulation Tech". TechCrunch. Retrieved January 25, 2017.
  49. "An Ex-Googler Launches An In-Home Care Startup Called Honor And Raises $20 Million", Tech Crunch, April 2, 2015
  50. "OpenBazaar is Entering a New Phase with Funding | OpenBazaar Blog". blog.openbazaar.org. Archived from the original on September 28, 2017. Retrieved September 19, 2017.
  51. "Introducing OB1 – Union Square Ventures". www.usv.com. June 11, 2015. Retrieved September 19, 2017.
  52. "Andreessen Horowitz to Invest in Nootropics Start-Up", The New York Times, December 3, 2015
  53. Loizos, Connie (November 21, 2016). "This 18-year-old just raised $3.5 million to help developers easily add capabilities to their apps". TechCrunch. Retrieved November 21, 2016.
  54. Loizos, Connie (January 14, 2016). "Everlaw Lands $8.1 Million Series A Led By Andreessen Horowitz". TechCrunch. Retrieved January 19, 2016.
  55. Lora Kolodny, "Cardiogram raises $2 million to predict heart health issues using wearables," TechCrunch, October 20, 2016.
  56. "Apeel Sciences raises $33 million to keep your food from going bad". SiliconBeat. December 13, 2016. Archived from the original on April 30, 2017. Retrieved November 19, 2019.
  57. Lawler, Ryan (January 20, 2017). "Quixey alums launch Sigma, a platform to bring merits and certifications online". TechCrunch. Retrieved January 25, 2017.
  58. Loizos, Connie (June 6, 2017). "Cadre collects $65 million in Series C funding | TechCrunch". Retrieved June 21, 2017.
  59. Roof, Katie. "Health IQ raises $34.6 million for life insurance for healthy people". TechCrunch. Retrieved December 12, 2017.
  60. "Andreessen Horowitz leads seed round in MIT-born 'genetic circuits' startup". www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved January 16, 2018.
  61. Coldewey, Devin. "Bio-programming toolkit maker Asimov launches with $4.7M from Andreessen Horowitz". TechCrunch. Retrieved January 16, 2018.
  62. Loizos, Connie (June 25, 2018). "Andreessen Horowitz has a new crypto fund — and its first female general partner is running it with Chris Dixon". TechCrunch. Retrieved March 5, 2019.
  63. Dorbian, Iris (March 13, 2018). "Imply grabs $13.3 mln Series A in Andreessen Horowitz-led round – PE Hub". PE Hub. Archived from the original on June 15, 2018. Retrieved April 11, 2018.
  64. Davis, Alexander (March 1, 2018). "A Connected-Car Platform Fuels Its Tank With NEA, Andreessen". Retrieved December 21, 2018.
  65. "CryptoKitties Wins $12 Million From Investors, Including Early Facebook Believer Andreessen Horowitz". Fortune. Archived from the original on April 12, 2018. Retrieved April 11, 2018.
  66. Williams-Grut, Oscar (February 7, 2018). "Andreessen Horowitz is backing a crypto-powered 'internet computer' that could be the future of cloud computing". Business Insider. Retrieved July 3, 2018.
  67. "Very Good Security makes data 'unhackable' with $8.5M from Andreessen". TechCrunch.
  68. Walsh, James D. (August 29, 2020). "A Guide to the Newsletter Economy". New York Magazine – Intelligencer.
  69. Ulevitch, David (June 4, 2019). "AnyRoad - Andreessen Horowitz". Andreessen Horowitz. Retrieved November 14, 2021.
  70. Needleman, Sarah E. (February 26, 2020). "Roblox Valued at $4 Billion as Investors Bet on Future of Gaming". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved February 27, 2020.
  71. Perez, Sarah (February 26, 2020). "Roblox raises $150M Series G, led by Andreessen Horowitz, now valued at $4B". TechCrunch. Retrieved February 27, 2020.
  72. "Figma Eyes Acquisitions, New Tools With $50 Million In Fresh Funding At $2 Billion Valuation". Forbes. April 30, 2020.
  73. "Crypto Fund II". April 30, 2020. Retrieved January 16, 2021.
  74. Konrad, Alex. "Andreessen Horowitz Wins VC Sweepstakes To Back Clubhouse, Voice App Still In Beta, At $100 Million Valuation". Forbes. Retrieved January 6, 2021.
  75. Lorenz, Taylor (December 23, 2020). "Clubhouse Makes Way for Influencers". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved January 6, 2021.
  76. "Clubhouse announces plans for creator payments and raises new funding led by Andreessen Horowitz". TechCrunch. January 24, 2021. Retrieved February 2, 2021.
  77. Auchterlonie, Tom. "Current emerges as a model for teen-focused neobanks as its user base soars". Business Insider. Retrieved June 14, 2021.
  78. "Mobile bank Current raises $220 million Series D, triples valuation to $2.2B". TechCrunch. April 27, 2021. Retrieved June 14, 2021.
  79. "NFT market OpenSea hits $1.5 billion valuation". July 20, 2021.
  80. Simpson, Arianna (October 5, 2021). "Investing in Axie Infinity". Andreessen Horowitz.
  81. Clark, Kate (October 4, 2021). "Andreessen Horowitz Values Developer of NFT Game Axie Infinity at $3 Billion". The Information.
  82. "Bored Apes NFT startup Yuga Labs raises seed round at monster $4B valuation – TechCrunch". March 22, 2022.
  83. Robinson, Matt (October 11, 2022). "Bored-Ape Creator Yuga Labs Faces SEC Probe Over Unregistered Offerings". Bloomberg UK. Retrieved October 13, 2022.
  84. Hall, Christine (March 15, 2022). "a16z backs Rutter's goal of being 'Plaid for commerce'". TechCrunch.
  85. Sheetz, Michael (March 31, 2022). "Machine-parts start-up Hadrian raises $90 million as it seeks to shake up the aerospace supply chain". CNBC.
  86. "Andreessen Horowitz bets on crypto 'golden era' with new $4.5bn fund". Financial Times. May 25, 2022. Retrieved May 25, 2022.
  87. "Adam Neumann Gets a New Backer". The New York Times. August 15, 2022. Retrieved August 15, 2022.
  88. "NIMBY Marc Andreessen Gives WeWork's Adam Neumann $350 Million to, Uhh, Solve the Housing Crisis". Vox. August 15, 2022. Retrieved August 15, 2022.
  89. Jin, Berber (October 25, 2022). "Sequoia Capital's Roelof Botha Predicts Success for Elon Musk at Twitter". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on October 26, 2022.
  90. Dwoskin, Elizabeth; Siddiqui, Faiz (October 31, 2022). "Musk's inner circle worked through weekend to cement Twitter layoff plans". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on October 31, 2022.
  91. Menn, Joseph (November 3, 2010). "Andreessen expands venture capital business". Financial Times. The Financial Times. Retrieved April 14, 2012.
  92. Cain Miller, Claire (June 15, 2010). "Andreessen Horowitz Hires a Female Partner". The New York Times. Retrieved April 19, 2012.
  93. "Disrupting the disrupters". Technology Quarterly: Q3 2011. The Economist. September 3, 2011. Retrieved April 14, 2012.
  94. Fielding, Cortney (June 29, 2011). "Larry Summers to join VC firm Andreessen Horowitz". GigaOM. Archived from the original on July 5, 2012. Retrieved September 28, 2012.
  95. Tam, Pui-Wing (September 26, 2012). "Andreessen Horowitz's New Political Mover-and-Shaker: Adrian Fenty". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved September 28, 2012.
  96. Gaus, Annie (April 2, 2019). "Andreessen Horowitz, Silicon Valley VC Firm, to Refocus on High-Risk Crypto Bets". TheStreet. Retrieved April 3, 2019.
  97. Konrad, Alex. "Andreessen Horowitz Is Blowing Up The Venture Capital Model (Again)". Forbes. Retrieved April 3, 2019.
  98. "Expanding to the UK". a16z crypto. June 11, 2023. Retrieved September 22, 2023.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.