Silicon Valley based leading investment firm Andreessen Horowitz raised $4.5 billion fund for crypto and blockchain startups


On Wednesday the Silicon Valley based leading investment firm Andreessen Horowitz (A16Z) announced it raised fourth crypto fund amounting to $4.5 billion for crypto and blockchain companies and startups including Web3.0 startups. The firm investing in crypto since 2013.
The new fund brings its total raised crypto or web3 funds for crypto and Blockchain investments to $7.6 billion. These funds will be used by Venture Capital firm in investing in in promising web3 startups at every stage. From the new fund approximately $1.5 billion will be dedicated to seed investments, and $3 billion to venture investments.
Following the collapse of TerraUSD and its sister coin LUNA, the news of a16z's latest crypto fund comes at a difficult time for the cryptocurrency market.
The new fund is the firm's fourth fund for the asset class and the biggest so far. The new $4.5 billion funds which is Crypto Fund 4 doubles the size of the crypto fund announced last year in June which was amounting to $2.2 billion Crypto Fund III. This shows that despite the up and downs in the crypto market, the firm’s partners are constantly looking to get more exposure to promising Web3 startups. Crypto and Web3 have likewise emerged in the last decade as new frontiers in technology, says the investment firm. Four years ago during a downturn now known as "crypto winter,” Andreessen launched its first crypto-focused fund.
Along with Andreessen Horowitz being partnered with Ariana Simpson, the current crypto portfolio of the firm includes the likes of Alchemy, Avalanche, Celo, Dapper Labs, Phantom Wallet, OpenSea, Solana, and Yuga Labs. Partners Arianna Simpson and Chris Dixon compare the long-term potential for crypto to "the next major computing cycle", after personal computers in the 1980s, the internet in the 1990s, and mobile computing in the early 2000s.
The firm invested in Flowcarbon which is a blockchain-based carbon-credit trading platform at the beginning of this week. It is also supported by controversial WeWork founder Adam Neumann. earlier this month Andreessen Horowitz announced the launch of GAMES FUND ONE. This will invest $600 million across the gaming industry.
Recently A16Z declared the creation of a16z crypto research. It is a new kind of multidisciplinary laboratory that is committed to help in solving important problems in areas, as well as advancing the science and technology of the next generation of the Internet.

Indrani Bose
CBW - External Analyst
INDIA