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Who is Katie Haun?
Katie Haun is a famous investor and is a prominent name in the Cryptocurrency industry. She was the first female partner of Andreessen Horowitz, joining the venture capital firm in June 2018.
This Former Federal Prosecutor of cases focused on crypto crimes soon turned into a popular investor in the cryptocurrency industry. She helped with various crypto-related fundraising at Andreessen, making it a significant investor in the crypto industry. And was among the heads in raising a $350 million fund for cryptocurrencies.
How did she enter the Crypto Industry?
Haun was a federal prosecutor and focused on frauds, cyber crimes, and corporate crimes working in line with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and United States Department of the Treasury. She prosecuted one of the biggest prison gangs Nuestra Familia, and Hells Angels, the Mongols motorcycle gang.
On her initial career days, Katie Haun clerked for the U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy and is a graduate of the Stanford Law School. And is also a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She previously taught cybercrime at Stanford Law School.
While she worked with the U.S. Department of Justice, she looked into cases of murders, gangs, money laundering, organized crimes, and public crimes.
When she worked in the private sector, she testified before the House and Senate on the intersection of Technology and Regulation.
But the point where she got into the crypto-industry was after getting her first Bitcoin-related case. After which, she created a cryptocurrency task force which was the government’s one-of-its-kind. She became the go-to prosecutor for the government for cases related to virtual currencies. She led investigations on the corrupt agents on the Silk Road task force and into the Mr.Gox hack. She formed this task force to act as a resource for other prosecutors and agents. She began to host regular meetings and seminars with officials and government agencies already working in the sector.
She joined the prominent venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz in the year 2018 and became the co-head of their $350 million cryptocurrency fund. But recently left the firm.
What is Andreessen Horowitz?
Andreessen Horowitz, often called as a16z, is an American Venture Capital firm that was founded in 2009 by Ben Horowitz and Marc Andreessen. It aims to invest in startups as well as established growth companies. Their investments are open for mobile, cryptocurrency, social, e-commerce, gaming, education, and IT industries. The firm has made notable investments in companies like cloud company Okta. It has also invested in the social media company Twitter, a legal technology company Everlaw, Roblox, Clubhouse, OpenSea, etc.
The firm has notable names on its general partners’ list, which includes John O’Farrell, Scott Weiss, Katie Haun, etc.
Why did Katie Haun leave Andreessen Horowitz?
Haun decided to depart from the Venture capital fund to explore more in the crypto space and start her own firm.
But her departure received warm responses as the firm’s founder Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz personally are interested in contributing to her new firm along with Chris Dixon.
Although she remained to be a part of the Board seats of the companies she has invested in while working with the firm. She is on the Board of Coinbase, a popular cryptocurrency exchange. She oversees the audit and risk committees there. Apart from Coinbase, she is also a part of the Board of the cybersecurity startup HackerOne.
The last fund Katie helped Andreessen to manage was for Web 3.0 companies worth $2.2 billion. This Web 3.0 space will be focused on startups on blockchain technology and cryptocurrency efforts.
About her new Crypto Fund
Katie Haun aims to raise a fund worth $900 million for a couple of crypto investments. Out of which, $300 million is targeted at an early statement in crypto startups. And the rest of $600 million is for a fund focused on larger companies and digital tokens. Though $900 million is a considerable amount for a new firm. But Katie has helped Andreessen to raise $2.2 billion in the past, which is a much larger amount.
Following her departure from Andreessen Horowitz, Haun started her own Venture Capital firm in 2022 by the name KRH. Her firm KRH has already collaborated in a $300 million funding round into OpenSea, the largest Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) marketplace, which led to OpenSea’s valuation of $13.3 billion.
Apart from the cryptocurrencies, Katie Haun is also indulged with the Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) space. From being a Prosecutor of Crypto-related cases to being a Crypto investor, Katie had quite a considerable career in the crypto sector. It is to look forward to what her new Venture Capital firm KRH plans next.