By
Chimamanda U. Martha
March 28th, 2024
Haun plans to retain her board seats at Andreessen’s portfolio companies which include OpenSea and Coinbase.
Katie Haun, who is one of the leading crypto investors of the world, has decided to exit venture capital fund Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). Haun, who became the first female general partner of a16z in 2018, wants to open her own venture capital fund. She plans to launch the fund next year that specifically targets cryptocurrency and blockchain enterprises.
Haun has cherished a thriving career as a former federal prosecutor. Working with Andreessen, she supported wide-ranging cryptocurrency-centric funds. According to a report by Axios, the company has been aggressively investing money in start-ups and ideas over the past year.
The Silicon Valley venture capital firm raised its $2.2 Billion funds in Jan 2021 and had completely exploited them by June. Despite the rather unstable environment surrounding the crypto space, the company seemed increasingly optimistic about the same.
In many instances, Haun had worked together with Chris Dixon of a16z to unveil the crypto funds. With Haun leaving the company, the firm’s blockchain investments will be led by Dixon, alongside the other three partners.
Haun, while disclosing her plans to launch her own venture capital fund on Twitter, added that Dixon’s and her initial crypto fund in 2018 was a long-shot experiment. She goes on to thank and congratulate everyone who worked hard enough for the results that “exceeded their expectation”. She also stated that with the growth of blockchain, it was evident that the web3 technology will alter the internet for good.
Katie Haun plans to go a bit extra with her own crypto investing firm. She intends to go beyond the conventional Bitcoin and digital assets to work for more general implications in Web3 technologies (which is also being touted as the next wave of the internet).
Having said that, Haun plans to retain her board seats at Andreessen’s portfolio companies which include OpenSea and Coinbase. However, the founders of Andreessen Horowitz, Ben Horowitz, and Marc Horowitz, along with Haun’s partner Dixon will be able to invest in her latest initiative. Andreessen Horowitz will remain a limited partner in the upcoming fund.
Andreessen Horowitz’s initial crypto-focused fund was inaugurated three years ago, in a period known as the crypto winter. During the crypto winter, the price of Bitcoin plunged massively from the peak in 2017 by 80%. The company is famous for its confident bets on firms like Instagram, Lyft, Pinterest, and Slack while they were in their premature stages. It dabbled into the world of digital assets via Coinbase in 2013.
Since Andreessen Horowitz’s announcement of its initial crypto fund, Bitcoin’s price has skyrocketed to about 700% of its value then.