An Andreessen-backed Startup Bets on VC’s Expansion

This week I spoke to Andreessen Horowitz general partner Anish Acharya and Initialized founder Garry Tan about a two-year-old startup financial services startup they’ve backed: The Coterie, which sells software to help wealthy individuals, fund managers and institutional investors manage their investments in venture capital funds and other alternative assets.

It seems like a tough time to grow a business focused on selling software to venture investors, given that VC firms are in the middle of their worst fundraising year in the last decade. But The Coterie and its backers argue that the startup will be able to ride out the downturn and take advantage of a bigger trend. That is, more individuals want to become VC investors, or limited partners in VC funds—and more VC fund managers need to find limited partners beyond traditional endowments and pension funds. In other words, they need wealthy individuals with cash to spare.

VC firms, particularly new fund managers, “can no longer rely on large institutional investors,” said The Coterie co-founder and CEO Ethan Agarwal.