Andreessen Horowitz Looking to Raise $4.5B For New Crypto Funds
According to the Financial Times, these funds combined will be more than double the size of its last $2.2 billion crypto fund, which launched in June 2021
Blockworks exclusive Art by Axel Rangel
key takeaways
- Each crypto fund from a16z has been larger than the last, a hallmark of growing interest and demand in the space
- The crypto portfolio of a16z currently consists of 41 different companies, including major industry names
Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, a16z, is back at it again, seeking to raise additional capital of $4.5 billion for new cryptocurrency funds, according to a report by the Financial Times.
This amount combined is more than double the size of its last $2.2 billion crypto fund, which launched in June 2021. If successful, the fund will be the fourth major investment by the firm. Its first fund launched in 2018 for $300 million and second fund in 2020 was for $515 million. Across the three funds, it manages over $3 billion that’s investing in crypto companies and protocols.
Each crypto fund from a16z has been larger than the last, signaling that there’s growing interest and demand in this space — and it has no sign of slowing down.
“Although the Bitcoin whitepaper is now more than 10 years old, we believe we are still early in the crypto movement,” the company said in its thesis.
“We find ourselves consistently surprised and excited by the wide variety of creative crypto ideas we encounter. For those of us who have been involved in software for a long time, it feels like the early days of the internet, web 2.0, or smartphones all over again,” it added.
a16z allegedly told investors last week it planned to raise up to $3.5 billion for its latest crypto venture fund and an additional $1 billion for another fund to focus on seed round investments in digital assets, which will be finalized by March, according to Financial Times’ sources.
The company has over $28 billion in assets under management, across multiple funds in different sectors like healthcare, crypto and financial technology. Its crypto portfolio currently consists of 41 different companies including major names in the space like Dapper Labs, dYdX, OpenSea, Near, Solana, Phantom and Uniswap.
The firm was not available for additional comment when requested by Blockworks on Thursday.
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