Crypto investor Katie Haun raises $1.5 billion, the largest debut fund ever by a female VC

cnbc.com:

Crypto investor Katie Haun has raised $1.5 billion for her new fund after leaving Andreessen Horowitz, and shattered multiple records in the process.

Haun Ventures' kickoff marks the largest debut venture fund ever raised by a solo female founding partner, according to Pitchbook. Former investment banker Mary Meeker held the prior record with a $1.3 billion fund after spinning out from Kleiner Perkins.

«It feels, honestly, like a lot of pressure. But I think that motivates everyone on the team,» Haun told CNBC in her first broadcast interview since leaving Andreessen Horowitz. «Web3 is the new era of the internet, and it deserves a new era of investors.»

The term Web3, or Web 3.0, loosely refers to general computing applications built on the blockchain — the same technology underlying bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Examples include NFTs, which are traceable ownership certificates attached to digital files such as art pieces or videos, and decentralized finance applications, in which self-executing «smart» contracts can be used to replace middlemen like lawyers and bankers in certain types of transactions. But overall, the space is still in a very early and experimental phase.

Haun's fund will be divvied up into two segments: $500 million for early-stage companies and protocols, and $1 billion for «acceleration,» or later-stage projects.

Haun, a former federal prosecutor, became Andreessen's first female general partner in 2018 where she co-led its multiple cryptocurrency funds alongside Chris Dixon. Andreessen Horowitz will be a limited partner in Haun's newest fund, while Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, the firm's founders, and Dixon all personally contributed to her new endeavor.

Her exit caught many in Silicon