Katie Haun, General Partner of Andreessen Horowitz
CNBC
One of the world’s top crypto investors is leaving Andreessen Horowitz to start his own venture fund.
Katie Haun, who became Andreessen’s first female general partner in 2018, said her fund will launch next year, focusing on cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.
Haun, a former federation Prosecutors, helped raise multiple crypto-focused funds at Andreessen. The company has invested money in projects and startups this year and has fully implemented it $2.2 billion fund was raised in June, according to Axios.
Haun co-launched Andreessen’s crypto fund with Chris Dixon, who will continue and lead the company’s blockchain investments, along with three other partners.
“When Chris and I started our first crypto fund in 2018, it was a great experiment,” Haun wrote on Twitter on Wednesday. “Thanks to many people’s hard work, it has exceeded even our wildest expectations. Today, it is clearer than ever that web3 will transform the internet.”
Haun is taking her own way as crypto investing goes beyond bitcoin and digital currencies and has broader implications in what the tech world is describing as the next wave of the internet, being called Web3 or Web 3.0. She said she would keep her board seat at Andreessen’s portfolio companies, including OpenSea and Coinbase.
Andreessen Horowitz will be a limited partner in Haun’s new fund. Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, the company’s founders, and Dixon personally will all contribute to Haun’s new endeavor.
Known for making early bets on companies like Instagram, Lyft, Pinterest and Slack, Andreessen Horowitz made the first foray into digital assets through Coinbase in 2013. Its first official crypto-focused fund launched three years ago, during what is now known as “crypto winter”. That year, bitcoin’s value was up about 80% from its 2017 peak.
Bitcoin has rallied around 700 percent since Andreessen announced his first crypto fund and was trading above $49,000 Wednesday afternoon.
