Founded in 2009 by Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen and Opsware CEO Ben Horowitz, who had angel-invested together for years. The firm broke the boutique VC model by building a large operating staff for recruiting, marketing and policy, deliberately modeled on the CAA talent agency.
Multi-stage, aggressive and full-stack: large dedicated funds (crypto, bio, games, American Dynamism), heavy content/media operation, registered investment advisor status to hold public stock and tokens.
Software, AI, crypto/web3, bio/health, fintech, defense ("American Dynamism")
Facebook, GitHub, Coinbase, Airbnb, Stripe, Slack, Roblox, Databricks
GitHub ($7.5B to Microsoft), Coinbase direct listing, Slack ($27.7B to Salesforce), Roblox direct listing
Marc Andreessen wrote the 2011 essay "Why Software Is Eating the World," which became the firm's de facto manifesto; a16z now runs its own media arm.
| Company | Rounds | Invested |
|---|---|---|
| OpenAI AI | 2 rounds | $130.3B |
| Databricks AI | 3 rounds | $14.5B |
| Stripe Fintech | 2 rounds | $13B |
| Waymo mobility | 1 round | $5.6B |
| Anduril Industries Hardware | 1 round, 1 led | $5B |
| xAI AI | 1 round | $5B |
| Thinking Machines Lab AI | 1 round, 1 led | $2B |
| Saronic Robotics | 1 round | $1.8B |
| Anduril deeptech | 1 round | $1.5B |
| World Labs AI | 2 rounds | $1.1B |
| Base Power Energy | 1 round | $1B |
| Deel HR Tech | 3 rounds, 1 led | $881M |
| Hopin SaaS B2B | 2 rounds, 1 led | $850M |
| SpaceX SpaceTech | 1 round, 1 led | $750M |
| Flow PropTech | 2 rounds, 2 led | $700M |
| Black Forest Labs AI | 3 rounds, 2 led | $631M |
| Cross River Bank Fintech | 1 round, 1 led | $620M |
| ElevenLabs AI | 2 rounds, 1 led | $580M |
| Loft PropTech | 2 rounds | $525M |
| Mind Robotics Robotics | 1 round, 1 led | $500M |
| TripActions Fintech | 2 rounds, 1 led | $430M |
| SpotOn Fintech | 2 rounds, 2 led | $425M |
| Plaid Fintech | 1 round | $425M |
| Mistral AI AI | 1 round | $418M |
| Replit DevTools | 1 round | $400M |
| Formation Bio Healthtech | 1 round, 1 led | $372M |
| Harvey LegalTech | 2 rounds, 1 led | $360M |
| Black Forest Labs AI | 2 rounds, 2 led | $331M |
| Character AI AI | 2 rounds, 2 led | $300M |
| Kavak Marketplace | 1 round, 1 led | $300M |
| Amca Hardware | 1 round | $300M |
| Workrise HR Tech | 1 round | $300M |
| Abridge Healthtech | 1 round, 1 led | $300M |
| Kalshi Fintech | 1 round, 1 led | $300M |
| Temporal DevTools | 1 round, 1 led | $300M |
| Periodic Labs AI | 1 round, 1 led | $300M |
| Decagon AI | 2 rounds | $285M |
| Cowboy Space SpaceTech | 1 round | $275M |
| Greenlight Fintech | 1 round, 1 led | $260M |
| CoinSwitch Kuber Web3 | 1 round, 1 led | $260M |
| Applied Intuition ai_ml | 1 round | $250M |
| EliseAI PropTech | 1 round, 1 led | $250M |
| Apeel FoodTech | 1 round | $250M |
| World Labs ai_ml | 1 round, 1 led | $230M |
| Skydio Robotics | 1 round | $230M |
| Whatnot E-Commerce | 1 round | $225M |
| Jeeves Fintech | 2 rounds, 1 led | $206M |
| Asimov Biotech | 1 round | $200M |
| Mercury Fintech | 1 round | $200M |
| Genesis Therapeutics Biotech | 1 round, 1 led | $200M |
| Substack Media | 2 rounds, 1 led | $165M |
| Inferact DevTools | 1 round, 1 led | $150M |
| Standard Nuclear Energy | 1 round | $140M |
| Improbable Web3 | 1 round, 1 led | $138.1M |
| Hebbia AI | 1 round, 1 led | $130M |
| OpenSea Web3 | 2 rounds, 2 led | $123M |
| Labster EdTech | 2 rounds, 1 led | $107M |
| Hippocratic AI healthtech | 2 rounds, 1 led | $103M |
| Eve LegalTech | 1 round | $103M |
| ARC ai_ml | 2 rounds | $100M |