Silicon Valley investment powerhouse Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) is reportedly looking to raise $450 million for a second cryptocurrency-focused fund.
According to a report published by the Financial Times citing “two people briefed on the matter,” the investment firm could “finalize the new fund in about a week but has not yet placed a hard cap on its size.”
Andreessen Horowitz is notably one of the most well-known venture capital firms in Silicon Valley, having invested in Facebook, Pinterest, AirBnb, BuzzFeed, Slack, Lyft, and others. In the cryptocurrency space, a16z invested in popular cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase as early as 2013, and was recently a founding member of Facebook’s Libra Association.
The VC firm already has a cryptocurrency-dedicated fund, that attracted $350 million in capital in mid-2018. In November 2019, the firm launched a free course meant to help would-be entrepreneurs build a cryptocurrency startup.
In the decentralized finance space, a16z has invested in firms like Compound, dYdX, and Maker, the largest protocol in the DeFi space. As CryptoGlobe reported, the total value locked in decentralized finance space hit $1 billion in February of this year as crypto prices were on the rise.
At press time, and despite the market crash seen last month, there are over $700 million locked in the DeFi space, with Maker making up 49.16% of the funds. Maker, it’s worth noting, is behind the DAI stablecoin.
Featured image via Pixabay.
