Powerhouse enterprise capital agency Andreessen Horowitz is selling Jennifer Li to normal companion after six years on the agency. She’s being tapped to assist make investments the brand new $1.25 billion Infrastructure fund managed by longtime a16z normal companion Martin Casado.
The Infrastructure fund is a part of the fresh $7.2 billion that the Silicon Valley VC large simply raised. Li has been an investing companion on the Infrastructure workforce for some time, which suggests she was already writing checks and taking board seats. However her promotion places her in rarified air: making her the twenty seventh normal companion on the agency, and she or he’s hit this profession milestone whereas in her early 30s.
Whereas that will sound like a whole lot of GPs, a16z at the moment has over 500 workers. Plus she’s one in every of solely 4 GPs on the Infrastructure workforce. The others are Anjney Midha, who joined the agency final summer season; Zane Lackey, who joined two years in the past; and Casado.
“Promoting Jennifer to general partner means that much more autonomy in deal making and, as importantly, that much more influence on the team’s culture, investment philosophy, and operating model,” Casado informed TechCrunch over e mail.
In Casado’s blog post announcing her promotion, he additionally talked about that she and he have been the 2 individuals largely accountable for constructing the infrastructure investing workforce. He described her as “a low-ego, incredibly reliable and generous partner to work with. No detail escapes her notice, and no challenge is too daunting for her to tackle. As Ben Horowitz has said many times, ‘She embodies the a16z culture.’”
In her time at a16z, Li helped the agency find data connectivity startup Fivetran, valued at $5.6 billion in 2021; and knowledge analytics developer software startup dbt, which hit a $4.2 billion valuation in 2022 (each of these offers have been led by Casado). She led the agency’s investments in developer-focused video platform Mux, a unicorn as of 2021; database startup MotherDuck, valued at $400 million earlier this year; and AI voice startup ElevenLabs, a unicorn as of January, the place she serves on the board.
Previous to becoming a member of a16z in 2018, she led product at AI startup Solvvy, acquired by Zoom in 2022; led self-service and analytics merchandise at AppDynamics, acquired by Cisco for $3.7 billion; and was a Kleiner Perkins Product Fellow in 2016.
