The Series A Fund Codex

We track active Series A funds to help our founders determine who they should be talking to. Over 700 firms led Series As last year. That’s too many funds - let alone partners - for founders to keep in their heads.

We’ve developed a framework to help founders go beyond brand to sort through and evaluate which funds are worth pitching. Investors do a lot of outreach, and founders are often inundated with cold emails, introductions, and “pings” from seed funds, growth funds, or participant funds that are unlikely to actually lead a round.

Despite the common idea that investors are the ones who should chase founders, we believe that the best founders should be proactively building relationships with the right funds.

The “right funds” list changes quickly as the overall venture market continues to evolve. In the last year, 51 firms from our Series A list announced new funds. The median announced fund size was $500M. The average fund size, skewed by larger funds that raised both early and growth funds, was $977M. The median firm led 6 Series As in the last 3 years and participated in 5.

We’re starting to share how we at Magid think about evaluating venture firms. In doing that, we’ll be opening up our research on the most active funds and partners. First on that list is Andreessen Horowitz, which led 24 As in 2024.

This type of data is extremely relevant for founders thinking about fundraising. Unfortunately, it is hard to access and interpret. We combine a data-centric analysis on investment activity with our knowledge of how a fund operates to produce clear target lists for founders.

How we think about Series A funds

While many firms are investing heavily in brand and moving towards “platform” models, they are made up of individual partners. Founders can and should go beyond brand and evaluate the specific partner with whom they are engaging through real life interactions and references.

Here are three questions we like to ask:

• How likely is it that this fund leads my A? How active is this fund, and at what stages? Do they have enough money to anchor my ideal round size, or lead my B if I want them to?
• Has this fund made relevant investments? What are they excited about today? Have they invested in my sector, and do they know it well enough to diligence my business?
• Am I talking to the right person at this fund? Are they the kind of board member who I want to work with for the lifetime of the company? Do they have the political capital to champion and lead my round?

We also leverage our intuition about funds and partnerships based on our personal relationships and information. Of course, public profiles won’t perfectly capture the nuances of a partner’s current theses and taste, or proprietary insights like their internal standing in the fund and reputation among founders.

Andreessen Horowitz

Fund Size

Andreessen Horowitz breaks down its funds by sector focus, with its most recent raises in 2024:

• American Dynamism (2024): $600 million
• Apps (2024): $1 billion
• Games (2024): $600 million
• Infrastructure (2024): $1.25 billion
• Bio + Healthcare (2022): $1.5 billion
• Crypto (2022): $4.5 billion

We’ve created a tear sheet with 1) Series As announced by a16z and 2) active general partners and partners who led a deal in 2024. Check it out here ??

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1M0r26xzCEFzzq29IcPHtioDcs9r8SYrE8GPiqKIsx2I/edit?usp=sharing

Overall Investment Activity and Series A trends

Andreessen Horowitz led 78 announced rounds last year, distributed across the following stages:

• Seed: 32
• Series A: 24
• Series B: 13
• Series C+: 9

Series As: 24 rounds

• Median round size: $25M
• Rounds co-led (5): With DCVC, NEA, Lightspeed, Thrive, General Catalyst

Partners by Investment Activity, Sector Focus, and Tenure

12 partners were named lead partners on announced Series As in 2024: Martin Casado (3), Jennifer Li (2), Vijay Pande (2), Vineeta Agarwala (1), David Haber (2), Andrew Chen (1), Anish Acharya (1), Bryan Kim (1), Justine Moore (1), Jonathan Lai (1), Arijney Midha (1), Zane Lackey (1)

___

Disclosures

This material is intended for information purposes only and does not constitute investment advice, a recommendation or an offer or solicitation to purchase or sell any securities to any person in any jurisdiction in which an offer, solicitation, purchase or sale would be unlawful under the securities laws of such jurisdiction. Unless otherwise stated, all views or opinions herein are solely those of the author(s), and thus any view, comments, or outlook expressed in this communication may differ substantially from any similar material issued by other persons or entities. The information contained in this communication is based on generally available information and although obtained from sources believed to be reliable, its accuracy and completeness cannot be assured and such information may be incomplete or condensed. The information in this communication does not constitute tax, financial, or legal advice.