Andreessen Horowitz

We've known World Labs cofounder Fei-Fei Li for nearly two decades. She was joining Stanford as a new professor while a16z’s Martin Casado was just leaving to do his own startup. And she has advised the firm on AI many times in the past. Now, we are thrilled to partner with her and co-founders Justin Johnson, Christoph Lassner, Ben Mildenhall and the world-class team at World Labs, with our latest investment. Alongside language, there has been a “pixel” revolution in generative AI, allowing us to create images and videos from text descriptions of what we want to see. Unlike language models, these generated images are reflections of the physical world. But while these sorts of models are tremendously useful for creating images and videos, none are quite as general as LLMs are for language. For example, none can create a true 3D representation of a world you can walk through, interact with, and build upon — something that isn’t just confined to a screen, but an actual representation of the real world (or perhaps a generated virtual world), that sits within a computer, and allows for reasoning about physics and cause-and-effect. It is this problem that brings us to World Labs. At this point, the company is deep at work pushing the frontiers of the spatial intelligence problem. They’re building a foundation model that can generate 3D interactive worlds which are the basis for spatial reasoning. We are honored to be part of it. More from Martin Casado and Sarah Wang: https://lnkd.in/edFYq-Fp

A16Z GAMES SPEEDRUN is returning to SF, Winter 2025 ??

A must read from Angela Strange ??

As the majority of neobanks have stayed clear of becoming a bank, we wanted to lay out the case for why doing so would make sense down the line. Subject to the evolving regulatory landscape, we would expect most large neobanks to become chartered banks in the coming decade.

We are excited to announce we are leading the Series A for Mintlify. As infrastructure investors, we’ve explored countless documentation sites. Each time we land on a page, we can immediately sense the effort and thought that has gone into crafting the experience. The layout, navigation, and presentation all reflect a clarity of purpose. Without well-formatted code examples or interactive API playgrounds, our engagement diminishes rapidly. It’s not an exaggeration to say that the documentation often defines the quality of the product itself. From intuitive onboarding guides to API reference and examples, Mintlify allows customers to not only keep their brand design and style, but also easily manage and version-control the content from Github repos. Moreover, the preview function and web editor make it easy for non-developers, such as technical writers and product managers, to collaborate effectively with development teams.? Mintlify is at the forefront of a transformation where documentation is evolving to become a bridge between human knowledge and AI. It is paving the way for more intelligent and seamless interactions between technology and its users. More on Mintlify and its founders Hahnbee Lee and Han Wang, from Jennifer Li and Yoko Li: https://lnkd.in/eCyXskby

Autonomy is a critical component of the technologies that underpin American Dynamism, but building autonomous systems has long been a bespoke process. However, as Erin Price-Wright explains, a standard, software-driven autonomy stack is starting to take shape — driven by advances in AI, inexpensive hardware, and more companies tackling the same problems. More on the stack, as well as the opportunities to develop reusable components to solve specific technical challenges within each layer of the autonomy stack, from Erin: https://lnkd.in/eMzVnGhA

?? Big news! The official calendar of events for #SFTechWeek and #LATechWeek is now LIVE! And thrilled to announce that this is officially our BIGGEST Tech Week, ever! - 850+ events ?? - San Francisco: Oct 7-13 ?? - Los Angeles: Oct 14-20 ?? Link to register below to see all events?? Sneak peek of a few events you can't miss... - The Future of Entertainment with Andrew Chen (a16z), Carter Reum (M13), Jeffrey Evans (Mantis), David Sabow (HSBC) - Founder Fireside Chat with Chris Best, Substack Founder & CEO - Game Changers: Breakfast with Fenwick and a16z with Jonathan Lai (a16z GP) and Kat Duncan (Partner, Fenwick) - How Design, Story, and AI are Changing Software with Siqi Chen, CEO of Runway - AI Breakthrough: Finding Product-Market Fit with executives from Mistral AI, Pinecone, Anyscale, HSBC and a16z - SPEEDRUN Demo Day by A16Z GAMES 40%+ of the events self-report having an AI theme. We're also seeing a ton of diversity in topics, including: B2B, fundraising/investing, fintech, engineering, deeptech, infra, consumer, games, media/entertainment, SaaS... In just 2 years, the Tech Week community has grown to 100k+ folks and has evolved from primarily VC deal flow to deal flow AND a diverse range of use cases: - B2B Lead Generation - Product Launches - Sourcing Talent - Meeting Investors / Fundraising - Brand Building It's been amazing to see Tech Week serve as a bridge between different cities, connecting the SF, LA, and NY ecosystems. Our back-to-back scheduling for SF and LA is designed to encourage cross-pollination. ??Tech Week wouldn’t be possible without incredible partners. Thank you to Andreessen Horowitz Fenwick & West, HSBC Innovation Banking, Dialpad, Stripe, Atlassian, PwC, and Nasdaq for your support and belief in the mission ?? And Tech Week would not be possible without the incredible (and growing!) team behind it - huge shoutout to Andrew Chen Rose Johnson Shrikala Kashyap Joung Lee for your dedication to the community ?? Make sure you're following us at TECH WEEK by a16z for more updates, and register at tech-week.com!

The U.S. healthcare system excels at acute care, yet 90% of healthcare costs are driven by chronic diseases—many of which are preventable. This gap drove Casey Means, MD, a Stanford-trained MD, to leave her practice and tackle the problem head-on. Now, as co-founder of Levels, she’s using wearable tech and real-time data to help people improve their metabolic health—a key factor in chronic illness. Casey recently sat down with Vijay Pande, PhD to dissect the flaws in the U.S. healthcare system and explore how a mix of technology, lifestyle changes, and preventive care can reshape the future of healthcare. Listen to the full conversation on the Raising Health podcast: https://lnkd.in/gNavdYwi ** None of the above should be taken as investment advice or an advertisement for investment services; please see https://lnkd.in/gjmYWkHi for more information.

The a16z fintech team shares what they learned at?Fintech DevCon, payments platform?Moov’s annual conference for the #fintech #developer community. This year’s con highlighted the industry’s growth over the past year, as hundreds of fintech developers descended on Austin, Texas. The conference surfaced issues new and old, including trade-offs around LLM model choices, an increase in fraud risks driven by generative AI, and the growing persona of the developer as a buyer.

Some of the most disruptive changes in industries come from ‘outsiders.’ Think Amazon in retail, Uber in transportation, or Spotify in music —all because of reimagined consumer experiences. The same potential exists in healthcare. Today’s healthcare system is complex and frustrating for consumers. Navigating care is difficult, with 30% of Americans not seeing a primary care provider and 50% not adhering to prescribed medications. This isn’t just a problem—it’s a massive opportunity according to a16z Bio + Health’s Daisy Wolf and Vijay Pande, PhD. And outsiders—particularly those consumer-focused tech—are positioned to revolutionize the consumer experience in healthcare. By applying their expertise in user engagement, they could potentially democratize care and improve outcomes. Read more about this opportunity here: https://lnkd.in/gqqSz83d