Crypto investor Katie Haun raises $1.5 billion for Haun Ventures

Crypto investor Katie Haun has raised $1.5 billion for her new fund after leaving Andreessen Horowitz, and shattered multiple records in the process.

Haun Ventures’ kickoff marks the largest debut venture fund ever raised by a solo female founding partner, according to Pitchbook. Former investment banker Mary Meeker held the prior record with a $1.3 billion fund after spinning out from Kleiner Perkins.

“It feels, honestly, like a lot of pressure. But I think that motivates everyone on the team,” Haun told CNBC in her first broadcast interview since leaving Andreessen Horowitz. “Web3 is the new era of the internet, and it deserves a new era of investors.”

The term Web3, or Web 3.0, loosely refers to general computing applications built on the blockchain — the same technology underlying bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Examples include NFTs, which are traceable ownership certificates attached to digital files such as art pieces or videos, and decentralized finance applications, in which self-executing “smart” contracts can be used to replace middlemen like lawyers and bankers in certain types of transactions. But overall, the space is still in a very early and experimental phase.

Haun’s fund will be divvied up into two segments: $500 million for early-stage companies and protocols, and $1 billion for “acceleration,” or later-stage projects.

Haun, a former federal prosecutor, became Andreessen’s first female general partner in 2018 where she co-led its multiple cryptocurrency funds alongside Chris Dixon. Andreessen Horowitz will be a limited partner in Haun’s newest fund, while Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, the firm’s founders, and Dixon all personally contributed to her new endeavor.

Her exit caught many in Silicon Valley off guard. While it was a “dream job,” Haun said the departure was about taking more of a risk, and “stepping out of her comfort zone.”

“Obviously there’s a relationship there, and there are friendships there. We still intend to collaborate closely with Andreessen Horowitz,” she said. “One of the unique things about our fund size makes it so that we don’t have to lead every deal, we can play well with a lot of other crypto investors — founders don’t want a single investor on their cap table, even in the early rounds.”

Haun Ventures’ nine-person team includes Chris Lehane, a former Airbnb executive and Clinton administration official, Tomicah Tillemann, a former staffer for President Joe Biden, and Rachael Horwitz, who led communications teams at Twitter, Google, Facebook and Coinbase. Multiple employees left Andreessen Horowitz with Haun for the new fund. She said the smaller team allows the firm to be more “nimble,” and act as “venture contributors” in addition to venture capitalists.

“Gone are the days where founders just want capital,” she said. “One of the things that Haun Ventures will do for our founders is really actively contribute to the projects in which we…