Andreessen Horowitz is reportedly aiming to raise half as much for its latest AH Bio Fund than it did for its predecessor, marking the first time Andreesen Horowitz has downsized the strategy since launching it 10 years ago.
The prominent firm, founded and led by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, is seeking $750 million for AH Bio Fund V, which invests in biotech and healthcare companies, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.
Representatives of the firm did not respond to an e-mailed request for comment as of press time.
VC firms in general are finding it more difficult to raise new funds because few firms have made significant distributions back to LPs in the past three years due to a lack of IPOs and sales of portfolio companies.
Global venture capital fundraising has declined every year since hitting a high in 2021, according to Venture Capital Journal research. Fundraising fell to a six-year low in 2024, with 865 funds raising a combined $104.7 billion, down from 1,029 funds that raised a combined $128 billion in 2023.
Since raising $200 million for its first AH Bio Fund in 2015, Andreessen Horowitz has raised increasingly larger pools of capital for successor vehicles. It closed on $450 million for AH Bio Fund II in 2017, $851 million for Fund III in 2020 and $1.5 billion for Fund IV in 2022, according to fundraising data from affiliate title Buyouts and regulatory filings.
While Fund V appears to be much smaller than its predecessor, it is worth noting that Andreessen announced in January that its Bio + Health team had partnered with Eli Lilly & Company on a new fund called The Biotech Ecosystem Venture Fund, with Lilly committing up to $500 million to the effort. The fund will invest in companies at all stages and “focus on advancing the development of new medicines, enabling novel modality platforms, and scaling emerging health technologies,” the firm said in a statement.
Andreessen has not yet filed a Form D with the SEC indicating that it is raising Fund V, but the WSJ reported that the firm registered a new fund named AH Bio Fund V in Delaware in January.
It took just a year for the firm to raise AH Bio Fund IV, which received commitments from 149 investors, an SEC filing shows.
Limited partners in Fund IV included pension fund AP Fonden 2, the John S and James L Knight Foundation, the Morris and Alma Schapiro Fund, the Pritzker Traubert Foundation, The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, The JPB Foundation, The Leona M and Harry B Helmsley Charitable Trust and pension fund UPHS Illiquid Assets Pool, Buyouts reported.
Andreessen’s Bio + Health portfolio currently contains 70 companies, including three that are in the midst of being acquired, according to its website. The firm has exited 17 Bio + Health companies via acquisitions, IPOs and SPACs, the website shows.
Bio + Health was founded and is led by general partner Vijay Pande, who has been with Andreessen Horowitz since 2014. Other general partners on the Bio + Health team include Jorge Conde, Vineeta Agarwala and Julie Yoo. The overall team is made up of 15 investors, according to the website.
Performance data is not available for any of the AH Bio funds.
Andreessen Horowitz is reportedly aiming to raise half as much for its latest AH Bio Fund than it did for its predecessor, marking the first time Andreesen Horowitz has downsized the strategy since launching it 10 years ago.
The prominent firm, founded and led by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, is seeking $750 million for AH Bio Fund V, which invests in biotech and healthcare companies, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.
Representatives of the firm did not respond to an e-mailed request for comment as of press time.
VC firms in general are finding it more difficult to raise new funds because few firms have made significant distributions back to LPs in the past three years due to a lack of IPOs and sales of portfolio companies.
Global venture capital fundraising has declined every year since hitting a high in 2021, according to Venture Capital Journal research. Fundraising fell to a six-year low in 2024, with 865 funds raising a combined $104.7 billion, down from 1,029 funds that raised a combined $128 billion in 2023.
Since raising $200 million for its first AH Bio Fund in 2015, Andreessen Horowitz has raised increasingly larger pools of capital for successor vehicles. It closed on $450 million for AH Bio Fund II in 2017, $851 million for Fund III in 2020 and $1.5 billion for Fund IV in 2022, according to fundraising data from affiliate title Buyouts and regulatory filings.
While Fund V appears to be much smaller than its predecessor, it is worth noting that Andreessen announced in January that its Bio + Health team had partnered with Eli Lilly & Company on a new fund called The Biotech Ecosystem Venture Fund, with Lilly committing up to $500 million to the effort. The fund will invest in companies at all stages and “focus on advancing the development of new medicines, enabling novel modality platforms, and scaling emerging health technologies,” the firm said in a statement.
Andreessen has not yet filed a Form D with the SEC indicating that it is raising Fund V, but the WSJ reported that the firm registered a new fund named AH Bio Fund V in Delaware in January.
It took just a year for the firm to raise AH Bio Fund IV, which received commitments from 149 investors, an SEC filing shows.
Limited partners in Fund IV included pension fund AP Fonden 2, the John S and James L Knight Foundation, the Morris and Alma Schapiro Fund, the Pritzker Traubert Foundation, The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, The JPB Foundation, The Leona M and Harry B Helmsley Charitable Trust and pension fund UPHS Illiquid Assets Pool, Buyouts reported.
Andreessen’s Bio + Health portfolio currently contains 70 companies, including three that are in the midst of being acquired, according to its website. The firm has exited 17 Bio + Health companies via acquisitions, IPOs and SPACs, the website shows.
Bio + Health was founded and is led by general partner Vijay Pande, who has been with Andreessen Horowitz since 2014. Other general partners on the Bio + Health team include Jorge Conde, Vineeta Agarwala and Julie Yoo. The overall team is made up of 15 investors, according to the website.
Performance data is not available for any of the AH Bio funds.
