Katie Haun lands $1.5B for two crypto funds in historic raise for solo VC

That’s the number former federal prosecutor Katie Haun was striving to raise when she branched out on her own from venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz to run a solo fund, sources told my colleague Michal Lev-Ram a couple months ago for Fortune’s last cover story (Haun wouldn’t confirm that figure at the time). 

Now the numbers are in, and they’re even higher: $1.5 billion for Web3 investments across two funds—a $500 million early-stage vehicle and a $1 billion acceleration fund.

It’s not that the figure itself is so unusual. Billion-dollar fund raises feel rather commonplace after a year like 2021, and they’re still rolling into this one. But Haun has raised this capital alone, as a solo general partner. Right out of the gate, after four years leading a16z’s crypto fund with Chris Dixon (of whom she met on the Coinbase board), limited partners are handing her an enormous amount of capital in faith of what she’ll be able to accomplish. And, by the way, she also happens to be a woman.

The road as a solo VC is tried and true. You might start as an angel investor and build a rapport. Then raise a few million, or a few hundred million, early on, and continue to make a name for yourself before going back to market. Or, in the case of Haun, you can come right out of the gate swinging.

Previously, the most prolific solo venture capitalist (in terms of capital, at least) has been Elad Gil, a former Twitter executive. Last summer, a Securities and Exchange Commission filing revealed he was out fundraising for a $620 million fund. The Information reported at the time that it would have been the largest sum raised for one fund by a solo VC. (Gil didn’t respond to a request for comment on whether the fund has closed)

Solo venture capitalists have become a defining, albeit still rare, feature in the VC world—even leading investment rounds—as founders seem enthralled by a select few investors who are well-connected, can move more quickly, and may be willing to take a smaller equity stake in companies they back. After all, when you’re going it alone, there are less people who need to give a green light, and less people to take a cut of the pie.

As for Haun, her track record really has yet to to be documented. While she and Dixon built out Andreessen’s crypto team (which made more than 60 investments during her tenure), she was only around to see its exit of Coinbase. Not to mention, a16z’s first investment in the company was prior to her arrival. Initial valuations for some of her investments, like OpenSea, look rather promising—but we’ve seen plenty of well-valued companies fall apart pre-IPO or acquisition, and it doesn’t always guarantee a plump return down the road.

Thus far, Haun’s new firm has made investments in Autograph, OpenSea, Aptos, and Moonwell (She sits on the board at Coinbase, Autograph, and OpenSea). She’s still in the early innings of building out her team, which, as of last month, now includes Sam Rosenblum, former GP at Polychain Capital, Tomicah Tillemann, former head of policy for crypto at a16z, and Chris Lehane, who was a policy and communications executive at Airbnb, as well as a handful of others.

Andreessen is a limited partner in at least one of the new funds, as my colleague Michal previously reported. A representative for Haun’s firm declined to comment on any additional backers.

I do have to say I was a little surprised at the name she landed on for the firm: Haun Ventures. “I don’t want to rule anything out, but I don’t believe I will name it after myself,” Haun had told Michal in January. 

But as a solo VC, it’s really you and your connections you’re selling to founders. I suppose she decided it was best to embrace it.

Let’s talk about apes… Yuga Labs, which owns NFT collections like Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunks, raised a whopping $450 million in seed funding from a truly intriguing bunch of investors that include Snoop Dogg, Colin Kaepernick, Adidas Ventures, Mark Cuban, Timbaland, and Samsung, alongside some of the corporate or independent venture capital names you’d expect, like FTX Ventures or Animoca Brands. A16z’s crypto fund led the round, which gave the fledgling company a whopping $4 billion valuation. 

How did a bunch of sleepy apes get to be worth so much? It all seems to circle back to the communities these NFT collections are ultimately trying to build. Sure, the NFTs can be your profile picture on Twitter (see Andreessen’s page), but it’s essentially a membership. In the case of BAYC, which launched its own token ApeCoin last week, an ape NFT will eventually be your ticket into an exclusive “swamp club” metaverse.

The irony is that crypto enthusiasts have for years been insisting how digital assets will help poor and underserved communities. Yet some of the most well-backed projects in this space seem, well, to shut those people out. From an ape outsider’s perspective, Bored Ape Yacht Club feels like a high-dollar, super-exclusive digital country club that costs more than $260,000 to enter—all to monkey around the swamp with your friends and brag about how you landed one of the 10,000 bored ape seats on Twitter.

Maybe it’s one of those things you have to be a part of to really understand. Problem is—not many people in the world can afford to be.

See you tomorrow,

Jessica Mathews
Twitter: @jessicakmathews
Email: jessica.mathews@fortune.com
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Jackson Fordyce curated the deals section of today’s newsletter.

VENTURE DEALS

- Astronomer, a Cincinnati-based data orchestration platform developer for business analytics, raised $213 million in Series C funding led by Insight Partners and was joined by investors including Meritech Capital, Salesforce Ventures, J.P. Morgan, K5 Global, Sutter Hill Ventures, Venrock, and Sierra Ventures.

- Jeeves, a Miami-based corporate card and expense management platform for startups, raised $180 million in Series C funding led by Tencent and was joined by investors including GIC, Stanford University, Andreessen Horowitz, CRV, Silicon Valley Bank, FT Partners, Clocktower Ventures, Urban Innovation Fund, Haven Ventures, Gaingels, Spike Ventures, and Carlo Enrico. 

- RapidAPI, a San Francisco-based API management and connection provider, raised $150 million in Series D funding led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and was joined by investors including Citi Ventures, Qumra, Andreessen Horowitz, M12, Viola Growth, Green Bay, and Grove Ventures.

- Island, a Dallas, Texas-based designer of a work-focused browser, raised $115 million in Series B funding led by InsightPartners and was joined by investors including Stripes and Sequoia Capital.

- TokenEx, an Oklahoma City, Okla.-based cloud tokenization provider, raised $100 million in Series B funding from K1 Investment Management. 

- Worldcoin, the cryptocurrency startup, raised $100 million in funding through a private coin sale from investors including Andreessen Horowitz and Khosla Ventures.

- WorkRamp, a San Francisco-based learning platform for businesses and their employees, raised $40 million in Series C funding. Salesforce Ventures, Slack Fund, and SusaVentures co-led the round and were joined by investors including Lattice CEO Jack Altman, OMERSVentures, GTMfund, PeopleTech Angels,and UpHonest Capital.

- Tome, a San Francisco-based platform for developing and sharing ideas in the workplace and beyond, raised $32.3 million in funding from Greylock, Coatue, and other angel investors. 

- Lightlytics, a Tel Aviv-based cloud deployment SaaS platform, raised $26 million in Series A funding led by Energy Impact Partners and was joined by investors including Cervin Ventures, TLV Partners VC, and Glilot Capital Partners VC. 

- D-ID, a Tel Aviv-based A.I.-based media startup, raised $25 million in Series B funding led by Macquarie Capital and was joined by investors including Pitango, AXA Venture Partners, OurCrowd, OIF, Maverick, and Marubeni. 

- ​​Gamefam, a Los Angeles-based game publisher and developer on Roblox, raised $25 million in Series A funding led by Konvoy Ventures and was joined by investors including PlayVentures, Makers Fund, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Galaxy Interactive. 

- Kargo, a San Francisco-based supply chain company that pairs hardware and software, raised $25 million in Series A funding led by Sozo Ventures and was joined by investors including Founders Fund, Activant, Human Capital, Strike Capital, Lineage Ventures, and Flexport. 

- Wealth, a Tempe, AZ-based digital estate planning platform, raised $16 million in seed funding led by Anthos Capital and was joined by Bela Juju Ventures.

- ShopThing, a New York/Toronto-based shopping marketplace focused on luxury products, raised $10 million in Series A funding led by Origin Ventures and was joined by investors including Pritzker Group and Interplay.

- Ribbon Finance, a crypto structured products platform, raised $8.75 million in Series A+ funding led by Paradigm.

- nocnoc, a Montevideo, Uruguay-based online selling platform connecting sellers with marketplaces in Latin America, raised $7 million in seed funding.Mouro Capital and Quona Capital co-led the round and were joined by investors including Caravela, Olist, Broadhaven, DiegoDzodan, and Flavio Dias.

- Boom & Bucket, an Austin-based online marketplace platform for contractors to buy and sell used heavy equipment, raised $5.5 million in seed funding. Human Capital and Brickand Mortar Ventures co-led the round and were joined by investors including 8VC, Global FoundersCapital, Streamlined Ventures, Quiet Capital, and MaC Venture Capital.  

-Climate X, a London-based climate risk analytics provider, raised $5.4 million in seed funding led by CommerzVentures and A/O PropTech and was joined by investors including VoyagersClimate Tech Fund, Blue Impact Ventures, Deloitte and angel investors including David Rowan, Kat Borlongan, and Renaud Visage.

- Third Time Entertainment, an Orlando, Fla.-based games studio, raised $3.5 million in seed funding led by LVP and was joined by investors including Reciprocal Ventures, CoinbaseVentures, 6th Man Ventures, Folius Ventures, Big Brain Holdings, and Maven Capital. 

- Dotterel Technologies, an Auckland, New Zealand-based noise reduction and audio recording tech company,raised $3 million in funding led by Icehouse Ventures and was joined by investors including RocketLab founder Peter Beck, K1W1, NZVC, Lanzatech’s SeanSimpson.

- Haystacks.AI, a New York-based data aggregation and intelligence platform for real estate investors, raised $3 million in funding led by RRE Ventures, Assurant, and Preface Ventures. 

- Breedr, a London-based livestock trading and analytics platform, raised £2.2 million ($2.91 million) in a crowdfunding round from Crowdcube. 

- Wedge, a Grand Rapids, Mich.-based video screening recruiting platform, raised $2 million in funding from investors including Michigan Capital Network, Michigan Rise, NorthgateHoldings, and others.

- Workorder, a Santa Monica, Calif.-based estimating solutions construction startup, raised $1.1 million in pre-seed funding from investors including UBMB and Mucker Capital.

PRIVATE EQUITY

- Pearlman Group, a portfolio company of The Stephens Group, acquired CleanSource, a Columbia, S.C.-based consumables, supplies, equipment, and training company for professional cleaning and disaster restoration industries. Financial terms were not disclosed. 

- Stand Equity acquired a minority stake in Neighbor, a Phoenix-based outdoor furniture brand. Financial terms were not disclosed.

EXITS

- L Catterton agreed to acquireLTP Home Services Group, a Baltimore-based plumbing company, from Thompson Street Capital Partners. Financial terms were not disclosed.  

OTHER

- Cresco Labs agreed to acquire Columbia Care, a medical cannabis provider and manufacturer, for $2 billion. 

- SES agreed to acquireDRS Global Enterprise Solutions, a Dulles, Va.-based commercial satellite communications subsidiary of Leonardo DRS, for $450 million. As part of the deal, Global Enterprise Solutions business will merge with SES subsidiary SES Government Solutions. 

- Blockchain.com acquired the OTC trading and executions business of Altonomy, a Singapore-based asset management platform developer for cryptocurrencies and digital assets. Financial terms were not disclosed. 

SPACS

PEOPLE

- Menlo Ventures, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based venture capital firm, hired Kandace Elam as director of GTM talent. Formerly, she was with Dreamscape.

- Tera Ventures, a Tallinn, Estonia-based venture capital firm, hired Eamonn Carey as general partner. Formerly, he was with Techstars London.