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Andreessen Horowitz alum Katie Haun, who announced she was venturing out on her own last December, has raised $1.5 billion across two funds to invest in crypto and web3 startups, Axios' Dan Primack writes.

Why it matters: In addition to being the largest fundraise for a solo venture capitalist, it will also make Haun Ventures one of the most well-capitalized crypto-native funds on the market.

Haun was an instrumental member of the a16z crypto team, leading investments and taking board seats at companies like Coinbase (Nasdaq: COIN) and NFT marketplace OpenSea.

Now with her own investment capital — a $500 million early-stage vehicle and a $1 billion "accelerator" fund — she'll be competing with her old firm's $2.2 billion crypto fund.

Other competitors include Sequoia, which announced a $600 million fund focused on crypto tokens in February; Bain Capital, which introduced a $560 million dedicated crypto fund earlier this month; and Bessemer, which is dedicating $250 million of its own to web3 investments.

The intrigue: How will Haun Ventures differentiate itself from the pack? We expect the firm to replicate some of the a16z playbook and provide value-added platform services to portfolio companies.

While Haun is the only investing partner today, the firm has made a series of hires to help portfolio companies with high-level strategic counsel.

Those hires include chief marketing officer Rachael Horwitz, global chief policy officer Tomicah Tillemann, chief strategy officer Chris Lehane, and partner and deal team lead Sam Rosenblum.   

Yes, but: With so much dry powder chasing a limited number of deals, some have argued the rise of crypto-native funds has led to an artificially inflated market.

In a recent CNBC hit, Founders Fund partner Keith Rabois said, "Right now, because of dedicated crypto funds, these people have nothing to do except spend on a certain subset of investments... And that's leading to artificial price distortions."

1 big thing: Haun's big haul

Illustration of gold coins stacked upwards over binary code

Situational awareness: Occasionally we will send alerts and thought bubbles when big news breaks. This is one of those moments.

March 22, 2022

1 big thing: Haun's big haul