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Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is starting a new academy aimed at training aspiring startup founders, backed by $42 million in funding. The program is positioned as an alternative to traditional college education for people who want to build tech companies.
Thyme Care, a virtual navigation platform for cancer patients, closed a $125 million Series E round led by Morgan Health with Humana and CVS Health Ventures participating, doubling its valuation to over $2 billion in less than a year. The company is also creating a new parent entity, Thyme Companies, to launch additional businesses tackling gaps in cancer care delivery, access and payment, with co-founder Robin Shah as executive chairman.
Andreessen Horowitz has boosted its fifth growth-stage fund by $1.75 billion, bringing its total to $8.5 billion after launching in January at $6.75 billion. The expansion comes just days after the firm closed a separate $1.1 billion 'Machine Age Fund' targeting AI hardware startups working on chips, memory, networking, and storage.
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.
Andreessen Horowitz has closed a new $1.1 billion fund called 'Machine Age' dedicated to physical AI infrastructure rather than software. The fund targets investments across chips, memory, data centers, cooling systems, power and robotics, marking a shift from the firm's usual software-centric approach.
Fashion startup Atorie has closed a $9.5 million seed round backed by a16z speedrun, Night Capital, and Lightspeed's Jeremy Liew. The company sells handbags and apparel made from the same materials and in the same factories as luxury brands like Prada, but at a fraction of the retail price. Founder Redouane Ramdani, previously of Snipfeed, says the products aren't dupes but genuine goods sourced directly from luxury manufacturers who now have excess capacity.
Fashion startup Atoire has closed a $9.5 million seed round backed by a16z Speedrun, Night Capital, and Lightspeed's Jeremy Liew. The company sells handbags and apparel made from the same materials and in the same factories as high-end luxury brands, but at a fraction of the price by working directly with manufacturers rather than through traditional brand markups. Founder Redouane Ramdani, previously behind Snipfeed, says the goods are not dupes but genuine products from the same supply chains as names like Prada and Louis Vuitton.
A report from The Midas Project examined 18 startups backed by venture firm Andreessen Horowitz, finding a pattern of investments in companies accused of running fake-account bot farms, hosting deepfake models used to sexualize minors, operating gambling platforms that skirt consumer laws, and building AI companion apps linked to suicide and troubling behavior toward children. The firm, led by Marc Andreessen, is simultaneously spending heavily on political influence, including a $100 million super PAC and lobbying that helped produce an executive order aimed at weakening state AI regulations. Andreessen Horowitz did not respond to a request for comment.