Andreessen Horowitz (a16z)

Founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, Andreessen Horowitz (known as “a16z”) is a venture capital firm located at 2865 Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, California that backs bold entrepreneurs building the future through technology. The firm is stage agnostic: a16z invests in seed to late-stage companies, and both consumer and enterprise technology companies. As of April 2018, a16z has raised $7.1B, across seven funds, including the $650M Bio funds.

Andreessen Horowitz built a network of technical and executive talent; media and marketing resources; Fortune 500/Global 2000 companies; as well as other technology decision makers, influencers, and opinion leaders. The firm uses this network to help their portfolio companies grow. Their operating teams provide entrepreneurs with access to expertise and insights across a range of topics.

Structure

Organization

As a venture capital firm, Andreessen Horowitz’s organizational structure is generally comprised of board partners, special advisors, operations team, and a group of in-house service specialists. The firm uses a Hollywood talent agency Creative Artists Agency model. Instead of having industry specific general partners, general partner works on behalf of all its portfolio companies. The in-house service specialists – whose skillset ranges from business development to recruiting – are meant to dispense their expertise to companies in Andreessen Horowitz’s portfolio.

Executive Briefing Center

Andreessen Horowitz also operates a facility that allows their portfolio companies to connect and network with established enterprises, called the Executive Briefing Center. The Executive Briefing Center is based both in California and New York. Established enterprises, who have been identified by their portfolio companies as potential customers, are invited to the center for a networking and presentation session of these companies’ products and services. For the established businesses in attendance, the session is an opportunity for them to be informed of the latest developments in their area of interest, alongside building possible partnerships with the presenting startups.

AH Bio Fund is a series of two Limited Partnership, Venture Capital, Pooled Investment Funds managed by Andreessen Horowitz.

AH Bio Fund I, L.P. specializes in Series A, seed, early-stage startup investments. The fund seeks to invest in software related biology, biotech, and medicine companies at the intersection of computer science and life sciences, with a focus on digital therapeutics, cloud technology in biology, and computational medicine robot. AH Bio Fund I raised $200M across 67 investors. It was announced on November 18, 2015.

AH Bio Fund II, L.P was announced on Dec 14, 2017 . The Andreessen Horowitz' second bio fund is a $450 million investment fund focused on the intersection of biology and engineering. As with the first bio fund, they invest across seed to growth.

History

In 2015, the venture firm Andreessen Horowitz launched a $200 million fund located in Menlo Park, CA, to invest in software, biology, and medicine, led by its ninth general partner, Vijay Pande. The Official name of the fund is AH Bio Fund I LP . The fund gathered $200M (18 Nov 2015) from 67 investors .

AH Bio Fund II, L.P is a venture capital fund located in Menlo Park, CA that invests in early-stage healthcare-focused information technology companies. This Andreessen Horowitz sponsored fund is led by Vijay Pande, the chair of Stanford University's chemistry department. The fund is an extension of the firm's early-stage information technology investment program, but differs in its focus on the healthcare sector.

The focus is in computational biomedicine, applying AI and ML to diagnostics and therapeutics; new bio utilities or tools that make it easier to "read", "write" or edit and synthesize DNA, as well as making advances in bioengineering itself.

Investments

AH Bio Fund I LP

This fund focuses on software companies built to enable and address biotech ideas. It makes roughly one Series A investment and 2-3 seed investments each quarter, on pace with other general partners at Andreessen Horowitz. The fund works closely with Y Combinator.

AH Bio Fund II

AH Bio Fund II invests in software companies which can benefit from the reduction in the costs of data storage, computational power, sensors to measure biological data, and genetic sequencing. AH Bio Fund II has identified computational biomedicine, new scientific utilities, and network effects in healthcare as areas of specific investment interest.

Andreessen Horowitz Crypto Startup School

Announced in November, 2019, Andreessen Horowitz offers a free crypto startup school. They opened the applications during their announcement, for which they hoped to see 20 to 25 teams or approximately 40 participants. The program, held at their Menlo Park offices, is seven weeks long, and will include technologists and investors from the crypto currency space. The first program starts February 21, 2020 and finishes April 3, 2020.

During the seven weeks, participants can expect to receive 12 to 15 hours of lectures, workshops, mentorship and networking opportunities per week. The courses outlined include:

• What are Crypto Networks, and Why Do They Matter?
• Blockchain Computing Primitives: Cryptography and Consensus
• Overview of Application Development Tools
• Applications: Today and 2025
• Crytpo Business Models
• Cryptoeconomics
• UX, Product Development and Security
• Go-to-Market Strategy and Developer Relations
• Community Participation and Governance
• Regulatory Landscape and Considerations
• Guide to Fundraising

At the end of the course, Participants showcase a project idea or prototype during a demo day. Participating in the program does not guarantee an investment from Andreessen Horowitz, nor do they take any equity for participating.

For those interested, but unable to move or spend a couple of month in Menlo Park, Andreessen Horowitz has said they will record all lectures, and the recordings along with curriculum materials will be made available later.