a16z expands growth fund to $8.5B, days after new $1.1B fund
Venture firm Andreessen Horowitz has grown its fifth growth fund to $8.5 billion, just days after unveiling a separate new $1.1 billion fund. The moves follow $15 billion in fresh funding the firm announced in January.
Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) has expanded its fifth growth fund from $6.75 billion to $8.5 billion, adding $1.75 billion since the fund's launch in January.
The announcement comes just days after the firm revealed a new, separate $1.1 billion fund called the "Machine Age Fund," aimed at AI hardware startups building chips, memory, networking, and storage technology.
Focus of the growth fund
As its name suggests, the growth fund is meant to back startups at the growth stage — companies scaling their products, expanding into new markets, and ramping up operations broadly. David George, the general partner leading the growth investment team, wrote in an announcement blog that the fund has backed more than 100 companies over seven years.
George noted that in the current AI era, companies are reaching the growth stage faster and raising larger sums at higher valuations than before.
Broad investment scope
With this capital, a16z is targeting enterprise and consumer AI, defense technology, robotics, infrastructure hardware and software, and health tech — spanning nearly the entire tech stack. In this election year, the firm is also directing significant funds toward politics and lobbying.
These new funds follow the $15 billion in fresh funding a16z announced in January, when the firm reported $90 billion in assets under management.
