GoKawiilVijay Pande leaves a16z to launch VZVC, a small, AI-driven biotech fund
Vijay Pande, who built Andreessen Horowitz's biotech investing practice into a nearly $4 billion operation, has departed to co-found a much smaller firm called VZVC with longtime investor Zach Werner. The new fund makes only a handful of concentrated investments each year instead of dozens, forgoes associates, and leans heavily on AI tools to run its operations.
GoKawiil's interpretation of the reporting above, not reported fact.
Pande's shift signals a broader rethink among veteran investors about scale versus focus in venture capital, especially as AI reshapes both how funds operate and how biotech itself is built. His comments also highlight a structural challenge for AI in medicine: unlike text data, biological data can't simply be scraped from the internet, forcing companies to build proprietary datasets that could limit broad access to AI-driven medical breakthroughs.
- Pande left a16z after growing its biotech investing arm to about $4 billion under management.
- His new firm VZVC intentionally makes far fewer, more concentrated bets and relies heavily on AI instead of traditional staffing.
- Biological data's lack of scrapability creates walled gardens that could limit widespread access to AI-driven medical advances.
Source: techcrunch.com — Connie Loizos, 2026-08-29
Published there as: ““We’re not doing 30 bets a year”: Vijay Pande on betting small after running $4 billion at a16z”
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