equity founded july 6 2009 ; 7 years ago 2009 07 06 founder marc andreessen ben horowitz headquarters sand hill road menlo park california u.s. products venture capital website www.a16z.com andreessen horowitz also called a16z is a private american venture capital firm founded in 2009 by marc andreessen and ben horowitz . the company is headquartered in menlo park california united states . contents 1 founding and partnering 2 investments 2.1 2009 2.2 2011 2.3 2013 2.4 2014 2.5 2015 2.6 2016 3 exits 4 structure 5 references 6 external links founding and partnering edit marc andreessen left and ben horowitz right are the company s founders . between 2006 and 2010 andreessen and horowitz were active investors in technology companies . separately and together they invested 80 million in 45 start ups such as twitter . 1 during that time the two became well known as super angel investors . 1 on july 6 2009 andreessen and horowitz launched their venture capital fund with an initial capitalization of 300 million . 2 in november 2010 the company raised another 650 million for a second venture fund 3 at a time when the field of venture capitalism was contracting . 2 in less than two years the firm had a total of 1.2 billion under management in two funds . 4 as of march 27 2014 the firm is managing 4 billion in assets with the closing of its fourth fund at 1.5 billion . 5 in may 2011 andreessen horowitz ranked as the number 1 venture capital firm by investor rank based on the firm s networks and level of syndication with other venture firms . 6 andreessen ranked number 10 on the 2011 forbes midas list of tech s top investors 7 while he and horowitz ranked number 6 on vanity fair s 2011 new establishment list 8 and number 1 on cnet s 2011 most influential investors list . 9 in addition to andreessen and horowitz the firm s general partners include john o farrell scott weiss jeff jordan peter levine chris dixon lars dalgaard vijay pande and martin casado . citation needed investments edit 2009 edit in august 2009 andreessen horowitz made its first investment backing technology business management saas developer apptio . 10 in september 2009 the firm invested 50 million for 2 percent of skype stock . 11 the investment was largely seen as risky because many believed skype would be crippled by intellectual property litigation initiated by skype s founders and direct competitive attacks from google and apple . 11 when we bought the company from ebay many thought that skype like so many acquired technology companies had lost its technical talent horowitz told the wall street journal . 11 through our research we found that skype had a core group of engineers who were completely dedicated to the mission . they stayed through the ebay acquisition and were hugely determined to make skype the communications company of the future . the gambit paid off when skype was sold to microsoft in may 2011 for 8.5 billion . 11 2011 edit in february 2011 andreessen horowitz invested 80 million in twitter 2 becoming the first venture firm that held stock in all four of the highest valued privately held social media companies at the time facebook groupon twitter zynga and likealittle . 4 andreessen horowitz has also invested in airbnb lytro jawbone belly foursquare and other high tech companies . 2 12 13 andreessen horowitz invests both in early stage start ups which may raise just 50 000 and established growth companies which often raise tens of millions of dollars . 14 the firm is currently invested in 156 companies which includes its own portfolio of 90 companies 15 and 66 start ups 16 through its funding of y combinator s start fund . 17 andreessen horowitz s investments span the mobile gaming social ecommerce education and enterprise it including cloud computing security and software as a service industries . 4 2013 edit in 2013 andreessen horowitz invested in startups ubiome soylent oculus vr ripple coinbase pixlee one month clinkle and pagerduty . 18 19 20 21 22 23 in august 2013 the firm also invested in website search startup swiftype . 24 former hollywood power broker michael ovitz 25 and the media corporation bloomberg l.p. 26 are andreessen horowitz investors . 2014 edit in may 2014 the firm led a 57 million series b round in the a b testing startup optimizely . 27 the firm invested 90 million in the security and systems management company tanium in june 2014 . 28 in august 2014 the firm invested 50 million in buzzfeed . 29 2015 edit on 20 january 2015 it was announced the firm invested 40 million in stack exchange 30 31 and a 2.8 million investment in distelli . 32 in september 2015 the firm led a 80 million series d round in cloud based cad software company onshape 33 and a 57 million series b round in blogging platform medium . 34 in november 2015 the firm led a seed round in agile performance management platform reflektive . in december 2015 the firm led a 2 million series seed round in nootropics and biohacking company nootrobox . 35 2016 edit in january 2016 the firm led an 8.1 million series a round in everlaw a legal technology company . 36 exits edit groupon ipo 2011 instagram acquired 2012 37 skype acquired 2011 38 zynga ipo 2011 nicira acquired 2012 silver tail systems acquired 2012 oculus vr acquired 2014 39 structure edit the firm is structured differently from most other venture capital firms in several ways . instead of having general partners who specialize in a specific industry each andreessen horowitz partner works on behalf of all its portfolio companies an approach modeled after the hollywood talent agency creative artists agency . 40 andreessen horowitz helps start ups it invests in with everything from recruiting to public relations . margit wennmachers a marketing veteran who joined andreessen horowitz in 2010 is among the few venture capital marketing executives at the partner level . 41 the firm has developed a database of top designers coders and executives and uses it to help fill positions at its start ups . andreessen horowitz has 11 staff members as of september 2011 dedicated to recruiting which is unusual for a vc firm . 25 former u.s. treasury secretary larry summers became a special advisor to andreessen horowitz in june 2011 . 42 summers works with the firm s portfolio companies that are seeking existing market restructuring and global expansion . 42 in september 2012 former washington d.c. mayor adrian fenty was appointed andreessen horowitz s second special advisor . 43 fenty advises the firm s portfolio companies on working with local state and federal governments . 42 references edit a b wong kromhout wileen . ben horowitz ms 90 . ucla engineering . ucla . retrieved 13 april 2012 . a b c d maney kevin 6 july 2009 . marc andreessen puts his money where his mouth is . cnnmoney . cnn . retrieved 13 april 2012 . cain miller claire november 3 2010 . andreessen horowitz starts second fund . the new york times . retrieved 14 april 2012 . a b c horowitz ben . andreessen horowitz has a new 200m co investment fund . ben s blog . andreessen horowitz . retrieved 13 april 2012 . dillet romain . andreessen horowitz raises massive new 1.5 billion fund . a16z . techcrunch . retrieved 15 may 2014 . schonfeld erick . the top 10 vc firms according to investorrank . top 10 overall vc funds . techcrunch . retrieved 13 april 2012 . 10 marc andreessen . midas list tech s top investors . forbes . retrieved 13 april 2012 . the 2011 new establishment list and the top spot goes to ... . vf daily . vanity fair . retrieved 13 april 2012 . marc andreessen and ben horowitz . cnet news . cnet . archived from the original on 8 february 2012 . retrieved 13 april 2012 . ricketts camille 19 august 2009 . first andreessen horowitz investment apptio raises 14m . venture beat . retrieved 20 march 2014 . a b c d ovide shira may 10 2011 . microsoft skype deal andreessen horowitz takes victory lap . the wall street journal . retrieved 14 april 2012 . rao leena . customer loyalty and rewards program for local businesses belly raises 10m from andreessen horowitz . news . techcrunch . retrieved 14 april 2012 . siegler mg april 28 2011 investors don t just like likealittle a little they like it a lot . techcrunch . retrieved 6 17 2016 . arrington michael . andreessen horowitz celebrates first year with new general partner john o farrell . news . techcrunch . retrieved 14 april 2012 . gustin sam 31 january 2012 . tech boom andreessen horowitz raises 1.5 billion vc fund . time business . time . retrieved 14 april 2012 . mitroff sarah . y combinator shows off 39 companies at demo day . news . venturebeat . retrieved 19 april 2012 . kelly meghan . andreessen horowitz to give 50k to all y combinator startups through start fund . deals . venturebeat . retrieved 19 april 2012 . chokkattu julian . ubiome raises 4.5 m from angel investors andreessen horowitz to crowdsource microbiome research . techcrunch . retrieved 30 may 2016 . strauss karsten . can pixlee change image based marketing 1.5 m on yes . forbes . forbes . retrieved 30 may 2016 . oculus rift ensures additional 75 million to take virtual reality mainstream . siliconangle . retrieved 30 may 2016 . big name investors back effort to build a better bitcoin . mit technology review . retrieved 30 may 2016 . primack dan june 27 2013 . clinkle raises 25 million to kill square . cnnmoney.com . retrieved january 26 2014 . williams alex. pagerduty raises 10.7 m round from andreessen horowitz for it alert service modeled on aws system . techcrunch . retrieved 2016 08 30 . yang stephanie 2013 08 15 . site search engine creator swiftype raises 1.7 m from a16z others . techcrunch.com . techcrunch . retrieved 2014 09 26 . a b disrupting the disrupters . technology quarterly q3 2011 . the economist . 3 september 2011 . retrieved 14 april 2012 . danielle kucera 6 march 2012 . andreessen horowitz invests 25.5 m in jumio s online payments . bloomberg . website testing company optimizely raises 57m round led by andreessen horowitz . techcrunch . may 5 2014 . retrieved may 17 2014 . venture capital giant andreesen horowitz ploughs 90m into tanium . infosecurity magazine . retrieved 24 june 2014 . mandaro laura . buzzfeed receives 50 million from andreessen horowitz . usa today . retrieved 22 august 2014 . dixon chris . a16z invests in stack exchange . retrieved 21 january 2015 . spolsky joel . andreessen horowitz invests in stack exchange . stackoverflow.com . retrieved 21 january 2015 . distelli snags 2.8 m to build deployment as a service . techcrunch . loizos connie . onshape raises 80 million led by andreessen horowitz . www.techcrunch.com . retrieved 30 september 2015 . yeung ken . publishing site medium takes on 57m led by andreessen horowitz . www.venturebeat.com . retrieved 30 september 2015 . andreessen horowitz to invest in nootropics start up new york times december 3 2015 loizos connie . everlaw lands 8.1 million series a led by andreessen horowitz . techcrunch . techcrunch . retrieved 19 january 2016 . cutler kim mai . andreessen horowitz made 78m off 250 000 investment in instagram . tech crunch . retrieved 22 august 2014 . microsoft officially welcomes skype . microsoft.com . retrieved on 2014 04 09 . mark zuckerberg i m excited to announce that we ve ... . facebook . retrieved on 2014 04 09