A16Z Sets Sights on Indian Startups, Plans $500M Investments

India is home to 94 unicorns, 13 of which were already born this year.

a16z india

Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) is on the verge of pouring hundreds of millions into start-ups in India, the worldโ€™s sixth-largest economy, and home to 94 unicorns, 13 of which were born just this year.

The U.S.-based venture capital firm is planning to invest $500 million into the growing landscape of Indian start-ups, as reported by TechCrunch, which cited anonymous sources familiar with the matter. A16z, a venture capital fund that invests in crypto and Web 3.0 startups, has issued no official comment on the topic as of this writing.ย 

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Reportedly, this is not the first time a Silicon Valley firm has entered the Indian market. Andreessen Horowitz made its first $260 million investment into cryptocurrency exchange ‘CoinSwitch Kuber’ last year. The four-year-old trading startup became Indiaโ€™s second crypto unicorn with a $1.9 billion valuation in October 2021.ย 

India in Demand

Andressen Horowitz is not the only firm eyeing India for potential investment. Multiple other venture capital sharks are exploring possibilities and increasing their investments in the worldโ€™s second-largest population.

Just a week ago, VC firm Lightspeed India Venture Partners disclosed plans to raise $500 million for its Indian funds. Tiger Global Management, Sequoia Capital,ย  Coinbase Ventures, FTX Ventures, South Korean Hashed, and Chinaโ€™s Sino Global Capital also reportedly have plans to increase tech hirings and investments in India, according to insiders familiar with the matter.

Venture capitalists cumulatively invested over $23.5 billion in Indiaโ€™s start-ups last year. The figure represents almost double the amounts of 2019 and 2020 combined. To put that number in perspective, venture capital firms invested $33 billion in total to crypto and blockchain-related start-ups during 2021.

A16Z’s Crypto Portfolio

Founded in 2009, Andreessen Horowitz, also known by A16Z, is one of the largest venture capital firms on the market, and the largest crypto VC investor worldwide. The firm runs crypto funds of over $2.2 billion, as per 2021โ€™s data, and has funded at least 50 crypto-related start-ups.

The venture capital firm is one of Coinbase’s major investors, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges today. The crypto portfolio of A16Z currently includes prominent names like Anchorage Digital, Avalanche, Celo, MakerDAO, Nansen, NEAR, OpenSea, Optimism, Solana, Uniswap, and Yuga Labs.

This article is for information purposes only and should not be considered trading or investment advice. Nothing herein shall be construed as financial, legal, or tax advice. Trading forex, cryptocurrencies, and CFDs pose a considerable risk of loss.

Author
Simona Ram

Simona Ram is the senior journalist at DailyCoin, focusing on in-depth investigations of the cryptocurrency sector. Simona has minor holdings in Bitcoin.

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