Andreessen Horowitz (a16z)

Andreessen Horowitz, commonly known as a16z, is a Menlo Park-based venture capital firm founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen, co-creator of the Mosaic web browser and co-founder of Netscape, and Ben Horowitz, a co-founder of Loudcloud and Opsware. The firm manages more than $35 billion in assets across multiple dedicated funds spanning seed through growth stages in artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency, biotechnology, consumer technology, enterprise software, fintech, and gaming. a16z operates a large internal platform team of more than 150 operators who provide portfolio companies with support across talent acquisition, marketing, finance, legal, and regulatory functions, a model that has been widely emulated across the venture industry. The firm's investment mandate is explicitly stage-agnostic and sector-wide, enabling it to lead pre-seed rounds in emerging areas while simultaneously committing hundreds of millions at growth stage in the same portfolio. Cultural and intellectual influence extends beyond its investments through a media platform, a research organization, and an active podcast and writing program that shapes mainstream technology and policy discourse. In AI, a16z has been one of the most active institutional backers globally, with stakes in companies including Mistral, Character.ai, and numerous foundation model and application-layer companies alongside its early OpenAI investment. The firm manages dedicated funds including a16z Bio and American Dynamism (national security and industrial technology). Beyond its original investments in OpenAI, Coinbase, and Databricks, the portfolio includes Airbnb, Lyft, GitHub, Oculus, Stripe, Robinhood, and Figma.