a16z taps Jennifer Lee to lead new $1.25 billion infrastructure fund

Image credits: Andreessen Horowitz

Leading venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz has promoted Jennifer Lee to general partner after six years with the firm. She has been appointed to help invest in her new $1.25 billion infrastructure fund, which will be managed by Martin Casado, a16z’s long-time general partner.

infrastructure fund is $7.2 billion new A major Silicon Valley VC firm just raised the issue. Lee has been an investment partner on the infrastructure team for some time, meaning he has already been writing checks and taking a seat on the board. However, her promotion exposes her to a disturbing atmosphere. She becomes the firm’s 27th general partner, reaching this career milestone in her early 30s.

That may sound like a lot of GPs, but a16z currently has over 500 employees. Additionally, she is one of only four GPs on her team.Others Annie Mida joins The company last summer. zane lucky, I joined it two years ago. And Casado.

“Promoting Jennifer to general partner means that she will have significantly more autonomy in contract execution and, just as importantly, greater influence over the team’s culture, investment philosophy and operating model. ,” Casado told TechCrunch via email.

In a blog post announcing Casado’s promotion, she also noted that she and she were primarily responsible for building the infrastructure investment team. He described her as “an incredibly reliable and generous partner to work with, despite her low self-esteem.” She doesn’t miss any detail and no challenge is too difficult for her to tackle. As Ben Horowitz has said many times, “She embodies A16Z culture.”

During the a16z era, Lee helped the company Discover data connectivity startup Fivetran, valued at $5.6 billion in 2021. Startup dbt, a data analysis developer tool, Will reach a valuation of $4.2 billion in 2022 (Both of these deals were led by Casado). She led the company’s investment in Mux, a developer-focused video platform. 2021 unicorn; database startup mother duck, Worth $400 million at the beginning of this year; AI voice startup Eleven Lab; As of January, it is a unicorn, She serves on the board.

Prior to joining a16z in 2018, he led product at Solvvy, an AI startup that was acquired by Zoom in 2022. He led self-service and analytics products at AppDynamics, which was acquired by Cisco for $3.7 billion. In 2016, he was named a Kleiner Perkins Product Fellow.