Andreessen Horowitz Launches Private Equity Fund
Apple x Meta, Nvidia Middle East deal, Google Ai personas, Mt Gox repayments, Amazon Metis, OpenAI M&A, Emergence, Vecna, Semperis + more tech deals
Dear Tech Buzz Reader,
Last call for the Real Intent membership 40% discount. Grow your sales pipeline with consumer intent leads direct in your inbox at <$0.05 per lead.
∆ Tech in the News
Apple x Meta? - The tech giants have discussed the integration of Meta’s Llama AI model into Apple's new AI system for iPhones, per WSJ.
Defying US Curbs? - Nvidia agreed to deploy its AI tech at data centres owned by Qatari telecoms group Ooredoo in five Middle Eastern countries.
AI Personas - Google is working on a conversational consumer chatbot product based on Meta’s ‘personas’ or Character.ai per The Information.
Bitcoin Meltdown? - The once-dominant Japan-based Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox is set to begin repaying creditors ~$9.4b in BTC from July.
Codename "Metis" - Amazon is reportedly working on a conversational AI product, and rolling out a paid ‘Remarkable Alexa’ product.
OpenAI Enterprise AI M&A Tear - 1. OpenAI purchased enterprise-focused, video collaboration startup Multi. | 2. Last week it also acquired database tech firm Rockset to boost its enterprise AI services.
The Hottest Thing in Tech this Week
A16z Courts Middle Eastern Wealth Funds
Andreessen Horowitz (aka a16z) plans to raise its first private equity fund, the a16z Perennial Private Equity Fund. This is another sign of the leading VC firm’s bold push into new businesses. It’s also a bid to open up capital flows from new markets, notably Middle Eastern Sovereign Wealth Funds.
The information reported in May on the growing traction of a trend of sovereign wealth funds backing U.S. Private Equity and Venture Capital firms with the expectation of attracting investments back to the region to accelerate the shift of the region’s economic base from oil to technology. A16z is uniquely well poised to best take advantage of this trend by tapping into the larger flows available to PE firms and its D.C. connections.
A16z has ~$42B in AUM and is primarily focused on technological futurism. Its recent bets skew heavily towards AI with at least 100 AI-related startups in its portfolio including May’s massive xAI round. Other areas include bio + healthcare, consumer, crypto, enterprise, fintech, games, infrastructure, defense, and ‘American dynamism’. Crunchbase data shows it joined 27 Q1 post-seed rounds, more than any other US VC. It also recently expanded into DC to focus on ‘public investing strategy’ and lobbying policymakers for the tech and finance industries like AI and Web3.
Why it Matters
The move into buyouts is a notable shift for the primarily early-stage VC firm. Based on its name, the new fund may follow a16z’s wealth management arm, Perennial in catering to the family offices it already has relationships with. It’s an unusual approach to run both a family office and VC firm in unison—though Iconiq Capital has done so for a decade.
A16z already has attracted ~19 clients and $822 million of assets as of mid-May. It anticipates in the “near future” a first close of two new funds from its family office division: a real assets fund, investing in real estate, as well as a “diversifying investments” fund, focused on “income-producing and diversifying strategies,” according to the filings.
Show me the money
A16z’s biggest limited partner is Calpers, a California pension plan, with $0.5 billion in assets. The second is a Canadian pension fund with $300 million. However, a16z has been looking further afield with reported talks with Saudi Arabia's $925 billion sovereign wealth fund PIF to partner on a $40 billion fund to invest in AI. It’s likely this deal, and others like it, are behind A16z's move to unlock PE flows in anticipation of a deluge of money from the region into AI and other cutting-edge technologies.
“The threat of not aggressively pursuing global AI dominance is considerable.”
— Marc Andreessen, Andreessen Horowitz Co-founder
Go Premium to get the Perplexity AI DEEP DIVE featuring:
Full AI search market analysis
Full Business case and competition comparison
How companies are using Perplexity to add value
Job Candidates (For Employers)
Request an intro to candidates - jobs@thetech.buzz
Lockheed Martin Software Engineer, ex-Rutgers Junior Full Stack Developer. Secret clearance. Expertise in C++, PHP, SQL. Rutgers BA in Computer Science.
Meta Technical Recruiter for ML/AI roles, 98% candidate response rate, 70% hire rate. Led training for 135 sourcers.
Deals We’re Watching
Founders to Watch and Opportunities to Catch
Open Deals:
Request an intro to founders - invest@thetech.buzz
Cannabis/Hemp E-comm - New York - The first AI-Powered end-to-end online platform for the hemp industry - 2,000% growth in 2 years. (Seed+)
AI Agent Employees - New York - Sophisticated workflow automation for businesses, by a previously-exited founder. Building towards fully autonomous organizations. Backed by Tribe & Kenetic, rolling out to extensive waitlist. (Seed)
Outbound B2B Campaign AI Co-Pilot - Lexington, MA - Turn any CRM into an AI optimized sales agent for personalized customer campaigns. Founder previous exit to PE. Notable Angel on board. Top Hubspot App. Post revenue. (Seed)
Trending Tools and Buzzy Tech
Tools
Anthropic - Artifacts interface for AI edits and project integration.
Endiatx - Tiny pill robot examines internal health with cameras and sensors.
Starlink x Comcast - Partnered on internet service for rural connectivity.
Tech
Apple - Will automate iPhone factories to reduce workers by up to 50%.
Open Source AI? - No one can agree on a definition of “open source” AI.
EssilorLuxottica - Meta Ray-Ban glasses partner in talks with other firms.
AI Blood Test - Test predicts Parkinson's disease ~7 yrs before symptoms.
Closed Deals:
AI Agent Knowledge Workers - New York stealth AI agent tech startup Emergence raised $97.2M from Learn Capital plus credit lines of $100M+.
Autonomous Warehouses - MA. AI software/robotics startup Vecna Robotics raised a $100M Series C from Tiger Global, Proficio, & IMPULSE.
Deals to Watch:
Webtoon Entertainment - An LA online comics platform aims to raise ~$315M at $2.67B at IPO. It connects 24M creators with nearly 170M MAUs in 150+ countries as at March. It lost $145M on $1.28B revenue in 2023.
SUBSCRIBE TO PREMIUM TO GET MORE INSIGHTS
Paying members get access to the rest of this post and other subscriber-only content and more. Subscribers get:
Premium deep dives and market reports
Access to exclusive content
Unlimited access to ‘Open Deals’ & ‘Startup Directory’
Unlimited warm introductions to founders and job candidates
Up to 50% OFF advertising in The Tech Buzz
0% management fee on Buzz Capital syndicate investments