Andreessen Horowitz
 | |
Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Private equity |
| Founded | July 6, 2009 (2009-07-06) |
| Founders | Marc Andreessen Ben Horowitz |
| Headquarters | Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, California U.S. |
| Website | www.a16z.com |
Andreessen Horowitz (also called a16z) is a private American venture capital firm, founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. The company is headquartered in Menlo Park, California.
Andreessen Horowitz invests in both early-stage start-ups, which may raise just $50,000, and established growth companies, which often raise tens of millions of dollars.[1] Andreessen Horowitz's investments span the mobile, gaming, social, e-commerce, education and enterprise IT (including cloud computing, security, and software as a service) industries.[2]
Contents
1 Founding and partnering
2 Investments
2.1 2009
2.2 2010
2.3 2011
2.4 2012
2.5 2013
2.6 2014
2.7 2015
2.8 2016
2.9 2017
2.10 2018
3 Structure
4 References
5 External links
Founding and partnering
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Between 2006 and 2010, Andreessen and Horowitz actively invested in technology companies. Separately, and together, they invested $80 million in 45 start-ups including Twitter.[3] During this time, the two became known as super angel investors.[3]
On July 6, 2009, Andreessen and Horowitz launched their venture capital fund with an initial capitalization of $300 million.[4] In November 2010, the company raised another $650 million for a second venture fund,[5] at a time when the field of venture capitalism was contracting.[4] In less than two years, the firm was managing a total of $1.2 billion under the two funds.[2]
In May 2011, Andreessen Horowitz ranked as the number 1 venture capital firm by Investor Rank, based on the firm’s networks and level of syndication with other venture firms.[6] 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, Alex Rampell, Martin Casado and Andrew Chen.[11][12][13]
Investments
2009
In 2009, Andreessen Horowitz made its two first investments: one in business management SaaS developer Apptio[14] and the other in Skype stock.[15] The investment was largely seen as risky because many believed Skype would be crippled by intellectual property litigation (initiated by Skype’s founders) and direct competitive attacks from Google and Apple.[15] "When we bought the company from eBay, many thought that Skype, like so many acquired technology companies, had lost its technical talent," Horowitz told The Wall Street Journal.[15] "Through our research, we found that Skype had a core group of engineers who were completely dedicated to the mission. They stayed through the eBay acquisition and were hugely determined to make Skype the communications company of the future." The gambit paid off when Skype was sold to Microsoft in May 2011 for $8.5 billion.[15]
2010
In 2010, Andreessen Horowitz invested $10 million in cloud company Okta while leading its Series A Round.[16]
2011
In 2011, Andreessen Horowitz invested $80 million in Twitter,[4] 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.[2] Andreessen Horowitz has also invested in Airbnb, Lytro, Jawbone, Belly, Foursquare, Stripe and other high-tech companies.[4][17][18][19]
2012
In 2012, Andreessen Horowitz invested in 156 companies, including the 90 companies in its portfolio,[20] and 66 start-ups[21] through its funding of Y Combinator's Start Fund.[22] They invested $100 million in GitHub, which netted over $1 billion for the fund when GitHub was acquired by Microsoft for $7.5 billion.[23][24]
2013
In 2013, Andreessen Horowitz invested in Clinkle, Coinbase, Databricks, Lyft, Oculus VR, PagerDuty, Pixlee, Ripple, Soylent, Swiftype and uBiome.[25][26][27][28][29][30][31]
2014
In 2014, the firm led a $57 million Series B round in the A/B testing startup Optimizely,[32] invested $90 million in company Tanium,[33] invested $50 million in BuzzFeed,[34] and led an $11.1 million Series A round in intent-based networking startup Forward Networks.[35]
2015
In 2015, the firm invested $40 million in Stack Exchange,[36][37] $2.8 million in Distelli,[38] $80 million in cloud-based CAD software company Onshape,[39] $57 million in the blogging platform Medium,[40] $25 million in Samsara, [41] $20 million in Improbable,[42] $15 million in Honor, Inc.,[43] $1 million in a blockchain startup OpenBazaar,[44][45][46] and $2 million in nootropics and biohacking company Nootrobox.[47]
2016
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.[48][49] The firm also invested $2 million in Cardiogram, a digital health company.[50] The firm also invested in food science business Apeel Sciences in 2016.[51]
2017
In 2017, the firm invested in Sigma, Health IQ, Asimov and Cadre.[52][53][54][55][56]
2018
In 2018, the firm raised $300 million for a dedicated cryptocurrency fund.[57] The firm invested in Imply, Smartcar, PeerStreet, CryptoKitties, Dfinity, Earnin, Pindrop, Tenfold, and Very Good Security.[58][59][60][61][62][63]
Structure
The firm is structured differently from most other venture capital firms in several ways. Instead of having general partners who specialize in a specific industry, each Andreessen Horowitz partner works on behalf of all its portfolio companies, an approach modeled after the Hollywood talent agency, Creative Artists Agency.[64] Andreessen Horowitz helps the start-ups it invests in with everything from recruiting to public relations. Margit Wennmachers, a marketing veteran who joined Andreessen Horowitz in 2010, is among the few venture capital marketing executives at the partner level.[65] The firm has developed a database of top designers, coders, and executives and uses it to help fill positions at its start-ups. Andreessen Horowitz has 11 staff members (as of September 2011) dedicated to recruiting, which is unusual for a venture capital firm.[66]
Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers became a special advisor to Andreessen Horowitz in June 2011.[67] Summers works with the firm’s portfolio companies that are seeking existing market restructuring and global expansion.[67] In September 2012, former Washington D.C. mayor Adrian Fenty was appointed Andreessen Horowitz’s second special advisor.[68] Fenty advises the firm’s portfolio companies on working with local, state, and federal governments.[67]
References
^ Arrington, Michael. "Andreessen Horowitz Celebrates First Year With New General Partner John O'Farrell". News. TechCrunch. Retrieved 14 April 2012..mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"""""""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration{color:#555}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration span{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg/12px-Wikisource-logo.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output code.cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#33aa33;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-right{padding-right:0.2em}
^ abc Horowitz, Ben. "Andreessen Horowitz has a new $200m Co-Investment Fund". ben's blog. Andreessen Horowitz. Retrieved 13 April 2012.
^ ab Wong Kromhout, Wileen. "Ben Horowitz MS '90". UCLA Engineering. UCLA. Archived from the original on 12 February 2012. Retrieved 13 April 2012.
^ abcd Maney, Kevin (6 July 2009). "Marc Andreessen puts his money where his mouth is". CNNMoney. CNN. Retrieved 13 April 2012.
^ Cain Miller, Claire (November 3, 2010). "Andreessen Horowitz Starts Second Fund". The New York Times. Retrieved 14 April 2012.
^ Schonfeld, Erick. "The Top 10 VC Firms, According To InvestorRank". Top 10 Overall VC Funds. TechCrunch. Retrieved 13 April 2012.
^ "#10 Marc Andreessen". Midas List Tech's Top Investors. Forbes. Retrieved 13 April 2012.
^ "The 2011 New Establishment List: And the Top Spot Goes to..." VF Daily. Vanity Fair. Retrieved 13 April 2012.
^ "Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz". CNET News. CNET. Archived from the original on 8 February 2012. Retrieved 13 April 2012.
^ Dillet, Romain. "Andreessen Horowitz Raises Massive New $1.5 Billion Fund". a16z. TechCrunch. Retrieved 15 May 2014.
^ "Team – Andreessen Horowitz". a16z.com. Retrieved 2017-01-15.
^ "An Uber executive is now the newest shot-caller at Andreessen Horowitz". Recode. Retrieved 2018-04-11.
^ The Associated Press (June 30, 2018). "Barack Obama visits venture capital firm on California trip". ABC News.
^ Ricketts, Camille (19 August 2009). "First Andreessen Horowitz investment, Apptio, raises $14M". Venture Beat. Retrieved 20 March 2014.
^ abcd Ovide, Shira (May 10, 2011). "Microsoft-Skype Deal: Andreessen Horowitz Takes Victory Lap". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 14 April 2012.
^ "Okta Is Now a Unicorn After $75 Million Funding Round". Recode. Retrieved 2017-10-15.
^ Rao, Leena. "Customer Loyalty and Rewards Program For Local Businesses Belly Raises $10M From Andreessen Horowitz". News. TechCrunch. Retrieved 14 April 2012.
^ Siegler, MG (April 28, 2011) "Investors Don't Just Like LikeALittle A Little, They Like It A Lot." TechCrunch. (Retrieved 6-17-2016.)
^ "Seed Round - Stripe". Crunchbase. Retrieved 19 February 2019.
^ Gustin, Sam (31 January 2012). "Tech Boom: Andreessen Horowitz Raises $1.5 Billion VC Fund". Time Business. Time. Retrieved 14 April 2012.
^ Mitroff, Sarah. "Y Combinator shows off 39 companies at Demo Day". News. VentureBeat. Retrieved 19 April 2012.
^ Kelly, Meghan. "Andreessen-Horowitz to give $50K to all Y Combinator startups through Start Fund". Deals. VentureBeat. Retrieved 19 April 2012.
^ "Andreessen Horowitz is pocketing a huge win in the $7.5 billion GitHub acquisition". Recode. Retrieved 2018-10-16.
^ "Microsoft Buys GitHub for $7.5 Billion". Andreessen Horowitz. 2018-06-04. Retrieved 2018-10-16.
^ Chokkattu, Julian. "uBiome Raises $4.5M From Angel Investors, Andreessen Horowitz To Crowdsource Microbiome Research". TechCrunch. Retrieved 30 May 2016.
^ Strauss, Karsten. "Can Pixlee Change Image-Based Marketing? $1.5M On 'Yes'". Forbes. Forbes. Retrieved 30 May 2016.
^ "Oculus Rift ensures additional $75 million to take virtual reality mainstream". SiliconANGLE. Retrieved 30 May 2016.
^ "Big-Name Investors Back Effort to Build a Better Bitcoin". MIT Technology Review. Retrieved 30 May 2016.
^ 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.
^ Williams, Alex. "PagerDuty Raises $10.7M Round From Andreessen Horowitz For IT Alert Service Modeled On AWS System". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-08-30.
^ Lorica, Ben (September 25, 2013). "Databricks aims to build next-generation analytic tools for Big Data". O'Reilly Media. Retrieved February 9, 2019.
^ "Website Testing Company Optimizely Raises $57M Round Led By Andreessen Horowitz". TechCrunch. May 5, 2014. Retrieved May 17, 2014.
^ "Venture Capital Giant Andreesen Horowitz Ploughs $90m into Tanium". InfoSecurity Magazine. Retrieved 24 June 2014.
^ Mandaro, Laura. "BuzzFeed receives $50 million from Andreessen Horowitz". USA Today. Retrieved 22 August 2014.
^ Weber, Harrison. "Andreessen Horowitz-backed startup Forward Networks raises $11M". VentureBeat. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
^ Dixon, Chris. "A16Z Invests in Stack Exchange". Retrieved 21 January 2015.
^ Spolsky, Joel. "Andreessen Horowitz Invests in Stack Exchange". stackoverflow.com. Retrieved 21 January 2015.
^ "Distelli Snags 2.8M to Build Deployment as a Service". TechCrunch.
^ Loizos, Connie. "Onshape Raises $80 Million Led By Andreessen Horowitz". www.techcrunch.com. Retrieved 30 September 2015.
^ Yeung, Ken. "Publishing site Medium takes on $57M led by Andreessen Horowitz". www.venturebeat.com. Retrieved 30 September 2015.
^ C, Hausmann (28 December 2018). "Crunchbase- Samsara Funding Rounds". www.crunchbase.com. Retrieved 28 December 2018.
^ Russell, Jon. "Improbable Lands $20M From Andreessen Horowitz For Distributed Simulation Tech". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2017-01-25.
^ "An Ex-Googler Launches An In-Home Care Startup Called Honor And Raises $20 Million", Tech Crunch, April 2, 2015
^ "OpenBazaar is Entering a New Phase with Funding | OpenBazaar Blog". blog.openbazaar.org. Retrieved 2017-09-19.
^ "Introducing OB1 - Union Square Ventures". www.usv.com. Retrieved 2017-09-19.
^ "OpenBazaar Raises $1 Million for Decentralised Marketplace". CoinDesk. 2015-06-11. Retrieved 2017-09-19.
^ "Andreessen Horowitz to Invest in Nootropics Start-Up", New York Times, December 3, 2015
^ Loizos, Connie. "This 18-year-old just raised $3.5 million to help developers easily add capabilities to their apps". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-11-21.
^ Loizos, Connie. "Everlaw Lands $8.1 Million Series A Led By Andreessen Horowitz". TechCrunch. TechCrunch. Retrieved 19 January 2016.
^ Lora Kolodny, "Cardiogram raises $2 million to predict heart health issues using wearables," TechCrunch, October 20, 2016.
^ "Series B - Apeel Sciences". Crunchbase. Retrieved 8 February 2019.
^ Lawler, Ryan. "Quixey alums launch Sigma, a platform to bring merits and certifications online". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2017-01-25.
^ Loizos, Connie. "Cadre collects $65 million in Series C funding | TechCrunch". Retrieved 2017-06-21.
^ Roof, Katie. "Health IQ raises $34.6 million for life insurance for healthy people". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2017-12-12.
^ "Andreessen Horowitz leads seed round in MIT-born 'genetic circuits' startup". www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved 2018-01-16.
^ Coldewey, Devin. "Bio-programming toolkit maker Asimov launches with $4.7M from Andreessen Horowitz". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2018-01-16.
^ Loizos, Connie. "Andreessen Horowitz has a new crypto fund — and its first female general partner is running it with Chris Dixon". TechCrunch. Retrieved 5 March 2019.
^ Dorbian, Iris (March 13, 2018). "Imply grabs $13.3 mln Series A in Andreessen Horowitz-led round - PE Hub". PE Hub. Retrieved April 11, 2018.
^ Davis, Alexander (1 March 2018). "A Connected-Car Platform Fuels Its Tank With NEA, Andreessen". Retrieved 21 December 2018.
^ "Andreessen Horowitz among investors in PeerStreet Series B – Bankless Times". Bankless Times. 2018-04-05. Retrieved 2018-04-11.
^ "CryptoKitties Wins $12 Million From Investors, Including Early Facebook Believer Andreessen Horowitz". Fortune. Retrieved 2018-04-11.
^ 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 3 July 2018.
^ "Very Good Security makes data 'unhackable' with $8.5M from Andreessen". TechCrunch.
^ Menn, Joseph. "Andreessen expands venture capital business". Financial Services. The Financial Times. Retrieved 14 April 2012.
^ Cain Miller, Claire (15 June 2010). "Andreessen Horowitz Hires a Female Partner". The New York Times. Retrieved 19 April 2012.
^ "Disrupting the disrupters". Technology Quarterly: Q3 2011. The Economist. 3 September 2011. Retrieved 14 April 2012.
^ abc Fielding, Cortney (29 June 2011). "Larry Summers to join VC firm Andreessen Horowitz". GigaOM. Retrieved 28 September 2012.
^ Tam, Pui-Wing (26 September 2012). "Andreessen Horowitz's New Political Mover-and-Shaker: Adrian Fenty". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 28 September 2012.
External links
- Andreessen-Horowitz web site
Frank Chen, Partner at Andreessen Horowitz: ‘Are you a mercenary or a missionary?’ (04.24.2013)
