New VC crypto fund ‘goes big’ into web3
Approximately $1.5B of the funds for “Crypto Fund 4” will be dedicated to seed investments, and $3B to venture investments, bringing the total of the firm’s crypto/web3 funds raised to over $7.6B. The company says it’s going to use these funds to invest in promising web3 startups at every stage.
Since the advent of computing in the 1940s, says the firm, there has been a major computing cycle every 10-15 years, including PCs in the ‘80s, the internet in the ‘90s, and mobile computing in the ‘00s. The firm now believes blockchains will power the next major computing cycle, which it is calling “crypto” or “web3.”
“Most computing cycles have “golden eras” when the right mix – including new talent, viable infrastructure, and community knowledge – comes together,” says Chris Dixon, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz in a blog post announcing the fund. “For example, with mobile computing, the golden era was 2009-11, when companies like Uber, Venmo, Snap, and Instagram were started. Golden eras are when legendary teams are formed, big ideas are hatched, and great products get built.”
The firm says it believes we are now entering the golden era of web3. Programmable blockchains are sufficiently advanced, and a diverse range of apps have reached tens of millions of users, and a massive wave of world-class talent has entered web3 over the last year.
“That’s why we decided to go big,” says Dixon. “We are excited about developments in web3 games, DeFi, decentralized social media, self-sovereign identity, layer 1 and layer 2 infrastructure, bridges, DAOs & governance, NFT communities, privacy, creator monetization, regenerative finance, new applications of ZK proofs, decentralized content & story creation, and many other areas. We will also keep growing our operating teams so that we continue providing the best services to founders.”
The firms operating functions include:
- Research and engineering, which helps portfolio companies solve their most important technical challenges in areas like cryptography, mechanism design, protocol design, and tokenomics; as well as conducting original research to advance the science and technology of the next generation of the internet.
- Security, which helps in areas like key management, smart contract auditing, and formal verification, along with application and infrastructure security.
- Talent and people, which helps with recruiting executive, technical, and product talent, plus developing organizational frameworks to support scaling.
- Legal and regulatory, which helps portfolio companies navigate regulatory uncertainty, and charts pathways for DAOs and decentralization.
- Go-to-market, which helps with marketing, communications, content, growth, strategic partnerships, and more.
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