Katie Haun is the first woman to become a general partner at the venture capital firm.
Indicating its belief in blockchain/cryptocurrency developers and entrepreneurs, venture capital (VC) firm Andreessen Horowitz[1] (also called a16z) announced on Monday the launch of a $300 million investment fund, a16z crypto[2]. The dedicated fund will allow a16z to bypass a frustrating cap that most VC funds face today. As recode[3] explained last week, VC funds are "legally limited to hold no more than 20 percent of their money in assets that are liquid securities, such as cryptocurrencies."
Thus far, the newly-announced fund has not made any investments. "We're in process with a few, but nothing that's been finalized," general partner Chris Dixon[4] told TechCrunch[5]. That said, a16z (the broader firm) has backed Filecoin[6] and Basis[7] among other projects.
Yesterday, a16z also welcomed its newest general partner, Kathryn ("Katie") Haun[8]. She is a cryptocurrency veteran who was the Department of Justice's "first-ever coordinator of digital assets." While with the DOJ, Haun led investigations into the MtGox hack[9] and the corrupt federal agents[10] on the Silk Road[11] taskforce. Currently, she serves on Coinbase[12]'s board of directors and lectures at Stanford's Graduate School of Business. Haun is the first woman to become a GP at Andreessen Horowitz and one of two women on the a16z crypto team[13] (the other is Hilary Kivitz[14], who also has a legal background).
In a post about Haun on the firm's blog[15], a16z co-founder Ben Horowitz appropriately quoted Nicki Minaj's "Chun-Li."
"How many of them could've did
